


The Depths of the Belly

by FinalRemuneration (orphan_account)



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Blood and Injury, Drama, F/M, Fear, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Gore, Horror, Humor, Izaya's a drama queen, Mental Breakdown, Mild Language, Monsters, Namie swears so much, Near Death Experiences, Poor Life Choices, Secrets, Shinra's dedicated, Spiders, Survival Horror, They're all stubborn, Violence, lots of hand holding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 10:00:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 58,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4387466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/FinalRemuneration
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Who wants to go three floors down into an old abandoned asylum just to copy a document? There's no power, and the back up generator will only activate the emergency signs. You know how people are nowadays. Believing in ghosts and stuff. It sounds like it's coming straight out of a horror movie, so of course no one wants to do it.”</p><p>Izaya takes on what seems to be a simple job in a scary setting. It only takes twenty-three seconds to convince Shinra to go along, and Namie agrees to drive them only because she may have warmed up to the informant in the worst possible way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Should Have Said No.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tags will be added as I go~ I've been playing too many horror games lately.  
> First chapter is clean of anything scary.
> 
> Enjoy~

“Namie, be nice.” Izaya shot his secretary a stony glance from where he sat at his office desk, fingers clasped together and resting on his stomach as he gently rocked in his office chair, eyes and posture lazy. He wasn't doing any work. He hadn't been for almost an hour. She had been sitting at her desk, doing _his_ work for quite some time, and he hadn't even noticed. Her face darkened, and for once it was an accident. “Don't make that face, you'll scare off my clients. It's bad for my business, and what's bad for my business is bad for you pay check.”

Namie simply clicked her tongue, not even bothering to look up from her laptop. He was being snider than normal, meaning that he was annoyed. It brought a smile to her lips. “Whatever. When is this man supposed to be showing up?” She knew when the client had been scheduled to arrive, and she knew that Izaya was glaring from where he sat in frustration. They both knew that the client in question was late, _very_ late. But she still liked to push Izaya's buttons by pretending to be ignorant. Plus, the word _late_ naturally rolled off Izaya's tongue so venomously that Namie had to stop herself from giggling.

Izaya sighed, shaking his head before swaying in the chair again. “He's _late_.” He glanced over to the wall clock, glaring with narrowed eyes, an expression that may become permanent if he wasn't careful. It was rare to see such a thing present in his expression. “Very _late_.”

Namie snickered, lips twisting up in a bemused smile. Izaya sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head to try and rid him of some of the tension. He could already feel a headache blossoming in the front of his skull, and he knew that it would only be a matter of time until it began to pierce right through his brain. He knew what Namie was doing, saying such things, and yet he didn't even bother to stop her. _The guy probably isn't even coming._

As if he had been summoned, there was a knock on the front door. Izaya was up and out of his chair in an instant, striding across the room with a fake – but normal – smile plastered on top his face. He covered up his irritation and frustration well, Namie noticed. As expected of the best information broker in the city. She smiled, turning her attention back to her laptop to finish the email she had been writing.

“Ah, that must be him now.” His eyes slid over to the wall clock once again as he crossed the room, smile faltering when he registered the time as _forty-eight_ minutes past five: the original scheduled time.

Fixing the look of irritation, he skipped the last few feet to the door, merrily chiming “Coming~” before swinging his front door open and greeting his newest client with a huge, welcoming smile and a sweeping gesture with his arm. Fuzen Kumori was an average man from what Izaya had gathered. A psychologist with more degrees than work experience. He was in his late forties, his face showing his age with deep wrinkles and small black eyes nervously darting around. And, as usual, he was still taller than Izaya himself – not that this bothered or intimidated the informant, of course. He had a large stomach pulling his pressed black suit tight, threatening to pop off a button or six, and most of his head was bald except for an ugly brown patch right at the back of his skull. He smelled strongly, a stench that had Izaya internally cringing. Namie would need to order him some extra air freshener after this.

 _Interesting._ The man was more... strange in appearance than he had been in the emails. He didn't look friendly, like Izaya had assumed, given that the man was a psychologist and all. Children would definitely run away screaming. Even Izaya felt the urge to run away screaming, especially when he smiled and showed off a row of crooked, misplaced yellow teeth. _Great._ But it was a good thing that Izaya loved all of humanity, ugly or not. This one was just as interesting, if not a bit scary. “Good evening, Fuzen Kumori. Orihara Izaya at your service.” With a dramatic gesture, Izaya bowed politely before welcoming Fuzen into his house.

Namie had to hold back her snicker, seeing her boss being so overly polite simply because he was irritated. It was a show that only she could enjoy, however, and she definitely couldn't say she minded observing him. As much as Izaya would have loved to hear this man out and talk him in circles, there were more pressing meetings that he was about to be late for. Namie considered emailing Shiki and explaining that Izaya would be a running a bit behind, but with a satisfied grin, she didn't bother.

Fuzen, stepping a few paces into the office, immediately looked abashed, “I'm so late,”

Izaya waved it off with a flutter of his fingers, like he hadn't been angrily staring at the wall clock for the entire _forty-eight_ minutes he had to wait. Whatever this man wanted, it had better be damn important. “Oh, don't worry, don't worry. Come in and sit down. Would you like some tea?” Izaya still managed to keep his cheerful smile as he guided the man over to one of his leather couches.

“T-thank you,” Fuzen bowed awkwardly. “I again apologize f-for being so late!” He shifted a moment, adjusting his suit before sitting down, the buttons holding his blazer closed protesting against the action. Fuzen didn't seem to notice, and Izaya had to force his eyes away lest he burst out into laughter. “I don't need anything to drink, I've already w-wasted enough of your time! Please, let's get to business?”

Izaya's eyes closed as he grinned, gracefully taking his seat on the leather couch opposite to the man. “Alright, fair enough.” His eyes split back open, akin to a cat stalking its prey, “What is it that you would like from me?”

Fuzen took in a deep breath through his nose like he was about to sell his soul, beady eyes flickering along Izaya's coffee table. Namie's entertained glance caught Izaya's attention, and his smile easily slid back onto his lips. Right from the start, Fuzen had seemed to be desperate. But perhaps he was just over dramatizing his need for help? These were the traits that Izaya loved to prey on, but with a glance to the clock, Izaya realized that he would be, without a doubt, late for _another_ meeting with Shiki. The Yakuza executive was going to have his head.

“You see, I've asked all sorts of people for help, but once I give the details, no one wants to get involved.” The man said, attempting to smooth out the wrinkles on his dress pants. “It's not exactly a job that anyone wants to do.”

Izaya nodded, his interest piqued because this _could_ be fun, but he didn't have enough information to be excited over. “Well fortunately for you, I am not your average guy. So, just lay everything down for me and I will let you know if it is within my abilities. I do _love_ a challenge now and then.” He hummed, eyes falling on his client like a predator. “I can only imagine what kind of job it is.”

Fuzen took another deep breathing, the wheezing sound suddenly grating on Izaya's nerves. _Humans sure are dramatic sometimes._ Perhaps he murdered someone? Needed a clean up? Or maybe he needed evidence destroyed?

The man shifted uncomfortably, glancing over to the side, "Well you see... I used to work for... for... well it was a _quiet_ sort of business... you know what I mean by q-quiet right?" He looked worried, like he was about to be arrested, eyes going wide as they glanced back over to Izaya like he himself would do the arresting. The deer in the headlights look grated on Izaya's nerves.

Izaya leaned back on his couch, throwing one leg over a knee. “Yes, I do understand what you mean by _quiet._ Please, go on.” His voice was like honey but his eyes were hard – and avoiding Namie's smug stare at all costs. She was entertained, and it _really_ annoyed him when she was having more fun than he was.

“O-okay. Okay, so, I need a file. Um! I mean! I need you to go and copy a file I made at my old... _workplace..._ because, w-well, first of all, I'm not supposed to have the information anymore, and second of all, I need it before next Wednesday, but I am leaving on a business trip tomorrow until next Tuesday.”

Izaya nodded, “May I ask about this business trip? You're a psychologist, no?”

“Y-yes I am!” The man said weakly, so weakly that Izaya couldn't imagine what sort of help he could provide. “But I don't work with people, I work with the science. I specialize in what I've termed the Cognitive-Mishap, and I give out my ideas to my colleagues to try and better assist patients with difficult and rare disorders. The company I work for is having a huge conference to discuss one of our newest treatments, and they announced that we might be rebuilding the old facility. Which means my documents will be moved, and I might never be able to get them back... because they r-revoked my rights to them in the first place...”

Izaya nodded, eyebrows creasing ever so slightly.

“Oh, I have an entire folder, my best work, stored away at the old facility. B-but, it's really controversial, so they locked it away. I don't need the actual file though, a copy will do, because they want everything to be accounted for when they finally get around to doing the demolition inspection on the building next year...”

“And you will be the first person the authorities go running too when they find out it's missing, right?” Izaya asked. The situation sounded _normal_ enough. A field job that would require him to go and obtain physical information. That wasn't hard.

_But why did everyone else refuse him?_

Izaya crossed his arms, tilting his head to the side. “But there must be some dirty little secret, if no one else would take such a simple job. Geez, I might as well just be taking your money for how easy this sounds!” Izaya laughed before catching himself, and immediately smothering his giggles by clearing his throat. “So, please do tell me the twist in this story.”

The man nodded, before taking yet another deep breath. His chubby fingers were threaded together atop his lap, one leg nervously bouncing. “It's... the file is stored away... in an abandoned... _medical_ facility... umm... I can give you the address. We were working on a psychosis treatment for a wide range of patients there, and I was hired to try and find a better way to deal with the disorder; a drug free way. It's an asylum, so... umm... the document is in room K28. Section K, room 28. It should be on the third basement floor, and the document itself is also conveniently labeled K28. You can probably find a map, the place hasn't changed since the eighties.” He took in another deep breath, eyes glancing back down to his shoes. “It's basically my life's work. We can both get into serious trouble if we're caught, and the facility hasn't been operational since ninety-four. So... that's the problem I've been having, heh. Who wants to go three floors down into an old abandoned asylum just to copy a document? There's no power, and the back-up generator will only activate the emergency signs. You know how people are nowadays. Believing in ghosts and stuff. It sounds like it's coming straight out of a horror movie, so of course no one wants to do it.”

Izaya nodded in understanding. The job sounded tedious, but something swelled in his gut. It gave him chills and forced the hairs on his exposed skin to rise. It sounded _exhilarating._ But it didn't sound scary enough to have other people shy away. There had to be more. Unfortunately, Izaya didn't exactly have _time_ to ask for details, for why no one else could or would go.

"It's definitely an interesting request..." Tapping a ringed index finger, Izaya eyed his newest client curiously, "It makes me think of a specific human of mine who would quite love to hear such a story." A small smile spread across his face. Namie almost snorted from the other side of the room.

"So... you'll... go look for me?" Fuzen sounded genuinely surprised, his face lighting up at the prospect.

“Now, I don't normally accept requests like these, but you've piqued my interest. It sounds like you have a lot to lose if someone doesn't help, and I believe it will be worth my while.” He smiled, lips splitting almost sinisterly. It could be fun. It could be _lots_ of fun. _And_ he could drag one of his favorite humans out to play with him. It had been a while after all. “I will look into your case tonight,” he glanced up at the wall clock and almost frowned. He should have called Shiki ten minutes ago - “and I will let you know, perhaps later or tomorrow morning at the latest.”

Fuzen appeared to be awe struck, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide. Suddenly, he stood up and practically jumped to the informant. “Oh, thank-you very much, here,” He shoved a hand into the pocket of his blazer, buttons screaming, and pulled out an old, worn business card. He shoved it into Izaya's hand, who was still trying to stand up – he wasn’t shocked by the man's enthusiasm, no – before stepping back and bowing deep. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I didn't think anyone would go in there for me.”

Izaya chuckled, pushing the business card into his pocket. “It's a good thing I'm not like most people then.” To be honest, the human was starting to weird him out. There was just something _strange_ about what he was saying. Or maybe it was how he was saying it. Or maybe it was just his sketchy behavior in general. Izaya couldn't quite place his finger on it. “Are there any extra details you can give me, so I know what I'm doing once I get there?”

Fuzen nodded eagerly, rubbing his hands together. “Yes, the building is super old but there's a back-up generator in the Control Room, on the main floor, that we never used. I can send you a layout of the building. You would have to go in there and turn the generator on. Using those computers, you should be able to unlock the door to the Containment Room. You'd be better off going with a partner... I think the doors have a timer before they automatically close again because we had a patient break in once to destroy his files, and I'm not sure if you could run from the Control Room to the Containment Room three floors down. They're those high-tech automated kind of doors. I'm not too sure how to work them, I just know that I had to break into the Control room first if I ever wanted to steal my files back. Also, you should -”

Izaya held up a hand, eyes sliding back up to the clock. “How about you send me an email?” He asked, smile still pleasant but eyes hard. Fuzen had already taken up too much of his time, and it was already affecting the rest of his clients for the night. “Unfortunately, you were incredibly late and I'm now running a little behind. But I will look into you case later tonight, and give you a final confirmation. Oh, and the more information you send me, the more I have to work with, and the faster this will be.” Izaya gestured towards the door politely, taking a step away from his couch. “Your request sounds fairly easy, but I will not underestimate it, alright?”

Fuzen nodded, taking Izaya's cue and heading towards the door. “Y-yes, I-I'm sorry once again for being so late!” They slowly made their way towards the entrance, Izaya tempted to just grab and drag the man out. His eyes flicked to the wall clock half way through another stuttered apology from Fuzen, before he let the smile twitch on his face.

“I will also email you my fee later,” Izaya opened the door _almost_ impatiently, “Please do send me everything you can, and I will get back to you.”

“T-thank you!” Fuzen nodded before hurrying out the door.

Izaya closed the door with a heavy sigh, dropping his back against the wood. “Humans.” He glanced to the wall clock before sighing again. Namie snickered from her desk, eyes flickering up to meet his. “How mad do you think Shiki will be?” Izaya asked with a large and completely fake grin. He pushed himself up from the wall and skipped over to his computer desk. He had been getting on Shiki's nerves lately, and he was certain that Yakuza was ready to beat his pretty little face in.

“Very mad,” Namie grinned, though she wasn't looking forward to dealing with the aftermath if Shiki decided to punish Izaya once again. Such events were... awkward for her. She spun in her chair, facing Izaya head on. “What was with that guy anyway? He was kind of creepy.”

Izaya shrugged before laughing, gracefully dropping into his spinning chair with his arms in the air. “A nervous psychologist with a stutter who doesn't interact with people?” Izaya snickered to himself before spinning once, fingers lacing together and dropping onto his stomach. “If I didn't know better, I'd think he was just pulling my leg.”

  


-%&~-

  


Shiki had been irritated by the late call, but that had been all. He had instructed Izaya to call him back the next day because he was busy – read that as _'dealing with Akabayashi because he is an untrustworthy shit and you called me too late, Orihara, I_ will _be dealing with_ you _tomorrow'_ – and if Izaya was late once again, his nose might ' _meet an unfortunate fate'_.

But with that said and done, it freed up Izaya's evening to take a look at the _interesting_ case he had received.

The wall clock was just striking eight when Izaya leaned back from his computer, stretching his arms straight above his head. Namie was upstairs, putting away a few files in preparation for the end of her work day.

“Naaaamie~!” Izaya called from his desk, shaking his mouse and loading up his emails. He smirked when it loaded, the most recent sender being none other than Fuzen. Even at a quick glance, the email looked really long.

“What?” Namie called back in irritation, glancing over her shoulder to glare at Izaya.

“Come see this...” Izaya whistled, eyes scanning his screen, before he laughed loudly. “Oh my, this email is _lengthy_.”

Namie snickered. She stood up and made her way downstairs. “Is it from that guy earlier today?”

Izaya chuckled before nodding, scanning the sentences with growing curiosity. “I think I can go and get this matter dealt with tonight. How do you feel about some overtime, and maybe some mileage?”

Namie scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. She stopped in front of Izaya's desk, glancing down at him harshly. “You ask me to start late so I can work late, and then you ask me to drive you to some abandoned facility out in the middle of nowhere?”

Izaya laughed once again, nodding at the screen in front of him. “Of course I would ask you such a thing? Who knows, maybe you'll discover some medical mystery there, some potion to make your brother love you and you alone! Wouldn't that be amazing, Namie!? Look, this email is easily six thousand words! It must have taken him an hour to write!” Izaya erupted into a fit of giggles, throwing a hand over his mouth.

Namie scoffed even though she wanted to laugh at him – he was being stupid and his excitement was almost contagious – while tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I will _not_ be going in there with you. But if you're offering to pay me _double_ time, I will cater you there and back.”

Izaya finally glanced up, forcing a pout onto his face. It wasn't convincing. “Oh Na _mie~_ but Fuzen-san said I should go with a _partner_.”

Namie scoffed once again, a hand landing on a narrow hip. “I am not your partner. I am not going in. If you keep whining, I'll be asking for _triple_.”

Izaya sighed in disdain before waving a hand a Namie. “Stop that, double time it is. But if you don't come in with me, then I know someone who would like to.” Grinning, Izaya picked his phone up from its charger, a large smile spread across his face. “How could he say no?”

  


-%&~-

  


_Namie_ should have said no. Her hands were gripping the wheel with enough force to turn her knuckles white, and she was one-hundred percent sure that within the next five minutes, one of two things would happen: one: being that she finally had a stroke, or two: being that she committed a double homicide.

“How could you do this to me though, to drag me out of my own apartment where I was patiently awaiting the return of the love of my life?” One Shinra Kishitani was interrupting Izaya again from the back seat of the SUV, his hands in the air defensively like he had been removed from his apartment _against_ his will. Like it hadn't taken a whole twenty-three seconds to convince him to go along with Izaya on this ridiculous job. “What will she think? My dear Celty might go home and think, ' _Oh! Where has my Shinra-chan gone?_ ' And then she will search the entire apartment, just to find my note, ' _Celty darling, I have gone out with Izaya for a few hours, I will be back soon, love you'_ and then what will she think? What if she thinks I'm cheating? With you, of all people? Because you're a cheater of the sneakiest kind, and poor me – I just fell into your web of lies and misguidance.”

Izaya gasped like he had been insulted, rolling his eyes from the passenger seat. He made the gesture dramatic enough, and yet he was _smiling_. Namie somehow managed not to scoff again, narrowing her eyes at the darkened highway before her. Why couldn't they have waited until the next morning to go? When it was light outside and easier to see, when she didn't have to navigate her SUV down a dark highway, and eventually into the woods where they would find and old and abandoned mental facility? She had watched enough movies and seen enough Anime in her life to know how this trip _could_ end.

 _Because going during the day wouldn't be as fun,_ Izaya had said, grin lighting up his face while he had relayed the details to Shinra on the phone. The fact that it was dark and creepy outside had helped convince the doctor to tag alone; how could he pass up such an opportunity, after all? He was head over heels for the supernatural mysteries of the world.

Namie scoffed, finally finding the dreaded turn off and taking the three of them into the shelter of the trees – on nothing more than an overgrown dirt road. She could _hear_ the plants catching and tearing in her wheel wells. She would have to spend most of her pay just _cleaning her car._

“What if there are still live samples in there? Do you think they have a freezer, or even a test room? Ooooh, what if they have something never seen before, a creature from the Dark World itself!? Or maybe a friend for Celty? Do you think they would have anything of the sort? And I wonder what kind of equipment they were using – though if it's from the nineties, I doubt it's anything more spectacular than what we have. I'm thinking about the wrong stuff, right Izaya? I should probably be focusing more on the specimens, live or dead. You don't believe this secret facility would be clean, do you? I mean what are the chances? They're experimenting with ways to aid mental patients, then there must have been text subjects. Ooo! What if they made monsters? Why did they even have to evacuate? Of course you know right, you wouldn't be the best informant if you didn't.”

Izaya snorted, grabbing onto his seat belt when they rolled over a particularly nasty bump. Namie cursed from the driver's seat, but he paid her no mind. “Of course I know why it was abandoned. What kind of informant do you take me as? Long story short, there were too many government officials looking into the nature of their care, and so the administrators decided to close down due to a 'contaminant spill' in order to escape the heat from the higher ups.” Izaya's eyes closed with his explanation, one hand gesturing. “Rumor has it that their gas generators were leaking in the underground facility unit, and that they contaminated the soil and the water supply, and they only found out when the patients started getting sick, which was conveniently dated around the time the officials started to become suspicious.”

Namie cursed, eyes narrowing at the rather large mud puddle she was about to drive through. Was it beginning to rain? The sky above was pitch black with only the full moon out to guide them. The trip was just getting worse and worse, the more she drove on. Why had she agreed? Why had she _ever_ thought that this was a good idea? She almost slapped her cheek to regain focus, but instead, she powered through her thoughts, drowning out that stupid little voice deep in her brain saying, _you came because Izaya asked you too._

She had _not_ developed a _crush_ on her boss over the past month and a half. _Nope._

“Ahh, so one of their experiments went wrong, and instead of admitting it they just leaked the gas and used that as an excuse. Hmmm, not the route I would have taken, that's for sure. They'd simply have to do a test, and they would find out that the gas leak was nothing more than a fabrication.” Shinra didn't sound convinced. He pressed a finger to his lips, glancing up to the roof of the vehicle.

“Ah, you'd think so. But you see, a certain scientist went and actually leaked the gas into the ground, and then he lit the place on fire. So all of the evidence was destroyed. Or, at least part of the building was destroyed, anyway. So they simply shut down and left the property because there was too much 'controversy'. The story that I got was sketchy in itself, so I doubt anyone actually knows exactly what happened. There were a lot of 'he said this but she said that' cases.”

Shinra nodded from the backseat with a smile. “Oh my, I wonder what kind of secrets they are hiding. They have to be hiding secrets. It's the only thing that makes sense.”

Izaya hummed in agreement.

Namie sighed dramatically, finally getting a word in against Shinra's chatter. “You are paying for me to get my car washed tomorrow, and if there is any damage or chipped paint, you're paying for the too.”

Izaya merely laughed, Shinra throwing in a comment from the back seat.

She should have said no. The bickering and arguing and non-stop _chatter_ continued on the entire way there. The entire way through the trees. The entire way up the hill. The entire way through the _dark cave full of bats and other unidentifiable creatures._ The entire way to the _sketchiest looking building Namie had ever seen!_

Namie slammed on the brakes at the end of the driveway, sending both of her passengers falling forward. Shinra and Izaya shut up long enough to duck their heads and glance out the window at the massive building surrounded by a concrete fence. The asylum was tall, maybe five stories, and it looked more like a castle than anything else. Window panes were falling off, and one side of the building look severely burned. The stone siding was flaking off and some of the windows were boarded up. The garden was dead and so was the massive tree, its branches looming over the driveway halfway to the door. There was no graffiti. The lawn was tall enough to reach Izaya's waist, and everything looked so _lonely_ and _miserable_. Lighting lit up the sky right behind it, sending chills straight through each occupant in the car. The iron gate was swung open, one creaking ominously in the gentle breeze as if it were gently inviting them to drive inside.

Izaya swallowed nervously, but a genuine smile hit his face before he could stop it and he giggled.

“Well...” Namie said, glancing up at the looming building behind the fence, “this is it.” A shiver ran down her spine. She immediately put the vehicle into park, leaning back in her seat and rubbing at her arms. As soon as the guys got out, she was putting her jacket back on and locking the doors. She wasn't driving in there. She had seen more than her fair share of _stupidity,_ whether it be in movies, or simply watching the people trying to break in back at Nebula on the cameras. If this place had its secrets, then damn right the doors would be rigged to close. She almost wanted to tell Izaya to abandon the job, but she knew he would never do so. She glanced to Shinra into the rear-view mirror.

Despite her worries about the mechanics and security of the building to keep people _out_ , Shinra seemed to have a different idea about what he was seeing.

His face was ecstatic in the mirror, eyes lit up like a little kid at the candy shop and he was fidgeting where he sat. “It looks like one of those old, creepy, haunted houses from those horror movies and horror games where when you go in, you don't come out and there's nothing but ghosts and ghouls and scary creatures stalking the floors, and you gotta sneak past with nothing but your flashlight because that's all you have and you're this pathetic protagonist character who can't fight, and that's just what makes it scarier right! Right! Izaya, I don't remember what we need to get but can we go? Can we go now?” Shinra's glasses glinted in the moonlight, a crooked smile stretching scarily across his face. Even Izaya shivered at the sight, glancing to his friend in the rear-view mirror. “This. Is. _So._ Exciting! If Celty were here, she would be so creeped out that I would have to hold her tight to make her feel safe! But no! She would never let me go in there because of her own fears that something scary might take me, so it really is a good thing I just left my note vague, and didn't say: _'Celty, I'm going with Izaya into a scary haunted asylum for a piece of paper. I'll be back! Love you!'_ She would be so mad if she knew! Can we go? Can we go now?”

Izaya smiled none the less, shaking his head and laughing at his friend's behavior. Shinra. Even if he saw things from a different pane, he was still an interesting human – if he could even be considered human. “Of course we're going to go in. I need to get that file. So here's the plan! We go in,” Izaya started, gesturing with his hands, “You go into the control room and press the button, _all by yourself_ , I'll go in and get the file three floors down, and then we can meet up and go exploring!”

Namie shot Izaya a dirty look. “I am only waiting for one hour max, and then I am l _eaving_.” She snapped, eyes boring holes into Izaya's soul. There was no way she was going to sit around in her vehicle well into the night _here_ , out in the middle of the woods. She might be that back up character who got killed outside! Not that she was worried – it was just a job and Shinra was just being dramatic and putting ideas into her head. Nothing would happen to any of them, she told herself. Nothing. They would all be safe, even if her gut was telling her otherwise.

Izaya laughed, popping open his door. Namie _almost_ stopped him. “You seem to forget that I am paying you double time. We're already an hour in, what's a few more?” He asked, shrugging nonchalantly before getting out and slamming the passenger side door shut with a laugh that echoed throughout the night. It startled a small flock of crows, and they took off from the trees, silencing Izaya immediately as he glanced up to their flying forms. They flew silently, the sound filtering in from above was the _whoosh_ from their wings.  


Shinra got out, rounding the back of the SUV and glanced up with Izaya. “Are you ready to go?” He sounded a little more excited than he should have been, the flashlight from his pocket already in his hand, ready to go. They were both equipped with batteries and flashlights, and Shinra had brought his video journal because _why wouldn't he?_  


What could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wish to see more, (or even more of a specific something) leave me a comment, because besides the first few chapters and general plot - if I continue - I leave myself a lot of room to explore and improvise.
> 
> ^,^)/


	2. It Was Fun While It Lasted.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were having a blast... but now... now this is no longer the case.

Izaya didn't think in terms of right and wrong, especially not when it came to events. Him and Shinra were standing outside the massive front doors to the huge asylum, the large wooden nameplate full of black holes and missing characters. The doors were locked, dark in colour and threatening. But Izaya wouldn't consider this wrong, like a bad omen screaming at him to turn back the way he had come. Izaya didn't think there was anything wrong with the situation at all. There was nothing wrong in the way that the lawn was so overgrown that it reached up past his waist. There was nothing wrong in the fact that the full moon was slowly disappearing behind ugly grey clouds. There was nothing wrong with the fact that he was getting chills, his excitement becoming apparent even to him. He couldn't deny that the asylum's grounds were spooky. The front doors wouldn't budge, and unfortunately, Fuzen hadn't provided Izaya with a key. This wasn't something in his plan that had gone wrong either; this was simply a new obstacle that he would easily over come.

Shinra was standing with his back to the door, the wind angrily snapping at his long white lab coat – Izaya was decked out in his long fur-trimmed jacket, so he couldn't really tease him for being uncreative – with a hand shielding his eyes from the intensive moonlight, staring out into the distance. “Namie moved the car.” He noted, watching as she backed up in between two trees, the SUV disappearing from sight and blending in like it belonged there the second she turned the vehicle off. “Let's hope she doesn't drive away and leave us! That would be terrible, right? Right? Izaya? What are you doing?” Shinra whirled, lab coat suddenly billowing in the wind and hair blowing back.

Izaya was standing just below a missing window, the grass stalks reaching up past his waist, with his arms crossed and a calculating look on his face. It was almost eight feet in the air, the glass cleanly removed from the frame. They wouldn't cut their hands if one of them were to pull themselves up and slip in. It was doable. 

“What's the plan?” Shinra unnecessarily ran the few steps over to Izaya, copying his posture and glancing up. They both tilted their heads to the left, contemplating the window, their combined height and strength, and the easiest possible way to get in and through. He glanced back to Izaya, understanding what the informant wanted to do, but froze when two rusty eyes intensely stared him down. Izaya was still thinking, going over scenarios in his head, and his stare was more aggravated then it needed to be. Shinra cleared his throat, Izaya's unseeing eyes flickering slightly to focus on his face. “I'm taller, and you're lighter than me. But I don't know if I can hold you up!”

Izaya smirked, dropping his arms and turning back to the window.”But if I hold you up, will you be able to pull yourself through the window, or will poor chubby Shinra just fall? It's a long way down.”

Shinra scoffed, leaning over closer to Izaya's face. “Shut up. I'll just hold you up then!” He didn't want to argue too long – no, there was too much potential waiting for him on the other side of these walls. He wanted to see it, and he wanted to see it _now._ He could only imagine what was on the other side of that door – but of course, he couldn't get too excited. What if there was nothing?

“Okay, so I'll go in and open the front door.” Izaya said cheerily, glancing back up at the tall window. He placed his hands on his hips, that easy expression returning to his face. Shinra sighed when Izaya gestured towards the window. “Help me out, friend.”

It took them a whole eight minutes; eight minutes of struggling on both their parts, but soon enough Izaya's dextrous fingers were clamped on the window sill and no longer needed Shinra's assistance. He pulled himself easily, twisting his body and just slipping in through the narrow window.

Shinra watched with a sigh as the informant completely disappeared. He waded through the tall grass back towards the front door, glancing over his shoulder towards Namie in the process. He couldn't see her because she was hidden well in the trees, but he knew whereabouts she was. _Will she be okay, out here by herself?_ He briefly wondered if she was laughing at their struggle just to get inside. She was a strange woman, but he was sure she would find humor in Izaya's struggles. He stopped by the door, a gentle but cold breeze ruffling his hair. _I wonder what she really thinks of Izaya._ The grass rustled with his movements, and – it must have just been his imagination – but he thought he heard a low, sad moan in the wind.

Shinra flinched when the front door suddenly squealed open, Izaya using most, if not all, of his strength and will power to shove the old wooden door open. A small crack formed with nothing but darkness spilling out of it, and Izaya slipped out panting. “Unless you can get it further open, this is as good as it's getting from me.” He said in a rush, placing his hands on his hips while the fur on his jacket swayed irritably against his face. “Let's go. It's so spooky~ inside~”

“Heh~” Shinra grinned, thoughts about Namie completely forgotten, glasses glinting as he took a step closer. “Then let's go in! After you!”

They slipped past the crack in the door – Izaya was still annoyed that the old beast had been so hard to push open – and immediately flicked their flashlights on, the light eerily bouncing off the shiny but dark linoleum floor. The room was pitch black aside from the light sneaking in through the crack of the solid front door, their footsteps echoing in the large, empty foyer. There was the usual furniture you would find in the waiting room to an asylum. Nice leather chairs that still looked fairly new, a desk and computer system placed off to the side for a secretary or two. There was a long faded black carpet stretching from the massive front door straight to a set of just as intimidating swinging doors, reminding Shinra of the inside to a church, with the carpet and all. He snickered at the imagery as they approached. The double doors were made of the same oak as the front door, massive and looming over the two of them as they approached. _Welcome_ was written on the nameplates that adorned both sides, and Izaya split a grin, almost laughing at how casual the words seemed given their setting. “We're being welcomed to Hell,” he said with a light chuckle, Shinra snickering with him. “I wonder how many of these patients felt welcome here.” His face suddenly lit up with the thought, no doubt going over all the possible reactions of his humans who were faced with this condemnation.

Shinra pushed at the massive doors gently, to test whether they were as solid as the front door had been. They surprisingly gave way a lot more easily, moving with the slightest touch of his hands. The hinges squeaked as they swung open, the flashlight bouncing off more linoleum flooring in the depths of the darkness. “So, once again, really quick, what's our plan?” Shinra asked, glancing over just a little too excitedly.

Izaya chuckled, leaning more on his right hip as he swung the flashlight along the walls, trying to see as far as he could. His heart was pounding in his chest, but without a doubt, he would get used to the eerie setting, and this would become somewhat normal. He almost snickered. Even he! A God! Was subject to the conditioning of the world! It was exciting! The stale air dried out his mouth as he began to laugh, eyes closed and hand wrapping around his abdomen. He was suddenly glad he had taken the job. Shinra was unnecessarily excited, and that too thrilled him! The doctor was an abnormality, and Izaya was starting to learn – not in his old age of course, for he was forever twenty-one – that perhaps the abnormal humans were his favorite. Why else would he keep in touch with a man so off his rocker as the marry and love a headless woman? He now had the perfect opportunity to see Shinra completely in his element, to watch his favorite human makes the faces and spontaneously react to an environment that even set Izaya's heart beating faster.

Shinra shook his head. What was he laughing about now? “Izaya!? The plan!?” Shinra smacked Izaya across the cheek, the informant breaking out of his ludicrous hysterics.

Izaya blinked, filching away and his laughter ceased almost immediately. He cleared his throat as if to excuse his ridiculous moment before he began to giggle again. “You know Shinra, half the population of Tokyo believes that I belong in a place like this.” He snickered again before regaining his composure, the light of the flashlight been eaten by the depths of the hallway.

Shinra regarded him carefully, trying to understand _what_ Izaya was referring to, before he cracked a large grin himself. “So you belong in the regular asylum, and I belong in the scientific part of it. So what happens now that we are in the haunted version together?” Izaya snorted, edging closer towards the door almost timidly, shining his flashlight deeper into the depths.

“Alright, plan A: the Control Room should be the last door in this hallway, on the left. We will go in there and turn on the generator, and then I leave the button pressing to you. The Containment Room is on the third basement floor, and I have the map to get down there.” Izaya grinned, turning to Shinra and placing a hand on his shoulder. “You will be left by yourself for approximately ten minutes. Will you be able to handle that, my dear friend?”

Shinra's smile became ecstatic. “Oh my, this does sound really nerve racking Izaya, I'm not sure you should leave me on my own!”

“Just whatever you do, when I call you and tell you to open the door, make sure you _open the damn door._ ” Izaya all but hissed, knowing that his friend would easily get distracted. The job should take at most twenty minutes – from this point, anyway. Twenty minutes, and then Shinra could do all the exploring he wanted. Until Namie called, bitching that they were taking to long, anyway. _Ah, that woman._

He sighed, deciding that if they wanted to explore, then they had to get the job done quickly. He moved into the hallway without any hesitation. The doors swung shut the moment they stepped through, trapping them in eternal darkness. Shinra followed at his heels like a puppy, little squeaks of excitement leaving him every few steps while he felt the need to just touch _everything_. There were end tables along the way with random trinkets on them. Most of them had pots full of dirt, the plants and flowers long since dead. Several of them were on the floor, spilling out amongst the shattered glass. Some of the pictures had fallen from the walls, but that was to be expected. The building was really old after all. It didn't come a surprise that walls were giving out, the floor even creaking in some spots from their combined weight.

It took them only a full minute to reach the end of the hall, both flashlights bouncing off the end of the hallway, and just as expected, the Control Room was to their left. “Here we are!” Izaya said in a sing song voice which echoed all the back down the way they had come. Shinra giggle before doing the honors of grabbing the handle and twisting. The door opened easily, swinging open with a gentle _creak_ that sounded ten times louder than it should have. If this had been Namie and Celty, they both would have gasped, probably.

Izaya giggled again.

“Can you stop that?” Shinra asked, using his shoe to nudge the door open before aggressively shining his flashlight into the room, lighting up every corner, every nook and cranny to make sure there were no surprises. He even ran inside, whipping the flashlight around to scare off any potential attackers.

Izaya placed a hand to his mouth, snickering like his little sister used to when she came home with dirty magazines. “Why?” He managed to muffle out from under his hand, finding the display his friend was making absolutely hilarious. “I thought you were into this spooky stuff?”

“This is not the time to be laughing, Izaya. We are in a spooky old asylum and everything is going exactly according to plan! Shouldn't the door have been locked? This was too easy! This is the part where the protagonist, or in our case, protagonist _s_ find themselves facing a danger they never expected! Like vampires or zombies or even werewolf guard dogs! Or maybe they made Dullahan hybrids who have the capability of transforming into aliens! _Oh!_ Aliens!” Shinra, despite the words, was getting louder as he went on, his excitement getting the better of him.

Izaya burst out laughing. He went into the room with Shinra, shining his flashlight around to get acquainted with the layout. There was a huge desk pushed to the end of the wall with a keyboard on it and more than enough speakers to hear every whisper within the facility. Izaya counted twenty-two computer screens, all of them in rows of five starting from the desk and progressively climbing higher on the wall, the two extra screens sitting across from each other on the side walls, just along the middle row. Two tall lockers stood by the back wall, along with a cabinet full of drawers and another flowerless pot sitting on top. There was a light switch by the door, but Izaya doubted that it would work.

“Is that the generator?” Shinra asked, flashlight sitting on a large metal object sticking out from the side of the room, opposite the hallway. It was mounted onto the wall, and it was a lot bigger than Izaya had expected.

Izaya squinted at it, taking a step closer before nodding. He ran his fingers over it, cool metal against his warm hands, the tips coming back black. “This would be her~” He all but purred, smiling at it and almost laughing again. The job was going so smoothly he wanted to puke. “Do you have any idea how to turn her on?” 

Shinra sputtered. “This generator? No. Now Celty-”

Izaya abruptly waved a hand in Shinra's face, almost hitting him, before shining his flashlight over the black surface. It was a generator so... was there a switch? 

“Don't you just pull the cord?” Shinra asked, receiving a genuinely stunned expression from Izaya.

“Cord?”

“Yeah, you know, the pull cord.” Shinra said, making a gesture with his hand that suggested a lot more than just pulling a cord. “The pull cord, Izaya, the pull cord. You have to pull the cord.”

“What cord?” Izaya asked, standing up straight and shining the flashlight over the entirety of the surface. “If you see a cord, please feel free to point it out to me.” He said, voice getting a little snappy as he tried to identify this _cord_ Shinra was talking about. He didn't see anything. He didn't see anything that looked like a cord or even a switch. There were just metal protrusions and lumps and – the thing was so _dirty,_ he'd have to clean it all off just to find a label!

“Do you _not_ know how to turn a generator on?” Shinra asked in exasperation, throwing his hands into the air like it was the simplest thing on the face of the planet, and that now they were both going to die because Izaya actually _didn't know_ something.

“Do _you?_ ” Izaya asked, narrowing his eyes. “You know, normal people hook their generators up to the... _control panel_ . In the _basement._ ” He said dramatically, like Shinra was completely stupid. Shinra could already tell that Izaya was fumbling for strings to pull here. “And you just flip a _switch_ in the _panel_ , with none of this cord pulling business.”

“Does it look like we're in a house, Izaya? This is probably the back-up generator to the back-up generator, so I doubt they used the traditional means of hooking this machine up.” He said, arms still gestured in the air like Izaya was in fact the stupid one there.

“Well then if you are so knowledgeable about this piece of machinery, Shinra, how about you go ahead and turn it on?” Izaya all but snapped before spinning away to try to hide his irritation. “I'll just sit over here, alright?” He said, laughing condescendingly before plopping himself down on the desk and pulling out his cellphone. “And this whole job was going so well! Well here you have it Shinra, here's your hiccup in the plan!” He threw his hands up before crossing a leg and sourly turning on his phone.

Shinra stared at him, face twisted into a frown, before he started laughing. He laughed so hard that he keeled over at the waist, hands dropping to his knees. He laughed for a good twenty seconds before righting himself, pulling his glasses off and wiping at his eyes. “Ah~ Who would have thought? The best informant in most of Tokyo doesn't know about the pull cord on generators.”

Izaya hummed irritably from where he sat in response, eyes glued to his phone screen.

Shinra took a look at the generator, tilting his head before shining his flashlight over it. There was a cord... right? He just had to find it. He had seen enough movies to understand at least that, right?

He dropped down to his haunches, and after three minutes of searching, Izaya jumped from the table. “Move,” he said, sounded more irritated than ever before, and he dropped down beside Shinra, shining his flashlight to a little protrusion. He stuck his hand under it, grabbing a knob, and twisted.

The generator roared to life, the computers at the desk suddenly humming and the emergency exit sign over the door suddenly flickered on. Izaya stood up, brushing is hands off on his jeans, and shooting Shinra a dirty look.

“You had to look that up, didn't you?” Shinra asked, standing up as well and mirroring Izaya's actions, dirty hands being brushed against his jeans. At least he had the common sense not to wear his dress pants on an adventure like this. Izaya shot Shinra a smug smirk before turning back to the security system. The screens were flickering on slowly, the light bright enough for them to turn off their flashlights and conserve some of the battery. It took a couple of minutes for the computers to load, the security tapes immediately loading up the second the system was ready to go.

Izaya and Shinra stared for a moment before cheering, a high five slapping through the air because _they fucking did it,_ bickering aside, and Izaya pulled out his phone again to search up the rest of the details Shinra would need in order for this to work.

“Okay, screen eighteen,” Izaya said, both of them glancing up to it just to see a single door on the screen with an unreadable nameplate. Unlike the rest of them, this camera didn't loop. It was fixed on the door in question, and nothing was going to distract it. Everything had an eerie white glow to it, everything looking slightly surreal when the cameras shifted to the night recording. “Okay, that looks right,”

“Right?” Shinra asked, but his eyes were elsewhere. “Look, look right there!” Shinra was pointing to one of the top screens, but it was already looping again. Izaya sighed but looked anyway. A couple of seconds later and the hallway to a lab lit up, glass encasing both sides and there were medical tables strewn about the floor. It even looked like there were _bodies._ But it could have just been the camera's. They were fuzzy after all. “I want to go _there!_ ”

Izaya snickered, elbowing Shinra to get him to pay attention. “After. There should be a panel full of buttons... right here, okay, the one labeled... K28, press it! Press it Shinra, do us the honors!”

The panel was laid out on the left side of the desk, right beside the keyboard. There were several buttons, all of different shapes and different sizes with multiple labels on them. Shinra snorted, pressing the button. They both glanced up, the door on screen eighteen automatically swinging open. Shinra squeaked in excitement, Izaya grinning because he was proud of his capabilities, as usual. The door remained open for a solid thirty seconds before swinging heavily closed.

“It's so tiring being a successful man all the time,” Izaya said with a small smile, like he was trying to be modest and not conceited. He pulled out his headphones from his pocket, plugging them into his phone. “Shinra, would you be a dear and open the door for me when I get down there? Please don't get distracted. If you see any mice, they're not mutants, I can assure you.” He asked, sticking only one earbud in and then calling Shinra's phone.

“But what if they are mutant?” Shinra pulled his own cell from his pocket, dropping it onto the table and answering it on speaker. “Of course, dearest, have fun down in the pits of Hell where you belong.” He replied with a wave even though he walked Izaya to the door. The informant shoved the phone into his pocket, zipping it up just in case. “So you're going to be about ten minutes?” He asked, the smile on his face reveling in the idea that he gets to be _alone_ in such a spooky place.

“Something like that,” Izaya agreed, skipping from the door and down the darkened hallway without his flashlight just for the effect. “Watch out for the creatures lurking in the shadows! I'll be back for you~!” He disappeared into the shadows for a few seconds... until he turned the flashlight on a little further down. The stairs were right by the swinging doors, and Shinra couldn't help but laugh as Izaya fumbled with the device for a moment.

“Scared of the dark are we!?” Shinra yelled, making out the general form of Izaya flipping him off before disappearing into the stairwell.

Shinra snickered, returning into the control room and closing the door behind him. He moved to hover over his phone, leaning against the desk and glancing up to the screens. He could see Izaya emerging onto the first basement floor, looking just as cheerful as when he had left. “Nothing scary down there, I assume?” Shinra said loud enough for the phone to pick up.

“Nothing yet~ Are you that concerned about me well being?” Izaya asked, though the microphone embedded into the cord right by his mouth picked up more of his breathing than anything else.

“Of course not,” Shinra said, glancing back up to the screens. There was a camera loop of the yard. He smiled, not being able to see Namie from where she had parked. _Smart._ “Hey, was it okay to just leave your secretary out there like that?” Shinra asked, the camera looping to what must have been the courtyard at one point. Now it was overgrown with tall, swaying grass and shrubs.

“She'll be fine.” Izaya said, breathing still even. He found the stairs down to the second floor, and Shinra could hear the echo of his squeaky footsteps in the stairwell. “She has a gun. In the glove compartment. Just in case.” He was starting to run out of breath, so Shinra just hummed in approval.

They continued the job in silence. Izaya was already on the third floor, and Shinra was staring at the camera loops, several of them catching his interest. There was definitely a lab, and several medical rooms, from what he could see in the shots of the hallways. There were a few rooms with cameras _in_ them, and he could only imagine why. But the one that caught him off guard was on the lowest floor, the only other camera that did not loop. It was just a shot of a thick, metal door. Locked in place probably. But the camera didn't loop, and it was in the screen at the top right.

“Hey Shinra.” Izaya called.

Shinra glanced down to his phone before glancing up to the screen and seeing that Izaya was standing in front of the Containment Room. His breathing was a little quick, seeing how he had made it all the way down there in just over five minutes. “Am I opening the door?” Shinra asked, glancing at the screen and seeing Izaya look up, eyes narrowed. He was really white in the footage, his black hair so dark that it looked like a black paper cut out.

“Yes, you're opening the door.” Izaya said, a little impatiently.

Shinra snickered, finger hovering over the K28 button. “What's magic word~?” Shinra sang, trying his best not to laugh when Izaya placed his hands on his hips and glared like a small child being patronized.

“Shinra open the door before I cut you at your knees.”

Shinra laughed, pressing the button. “I should make you say please, but I value my knees. Ohh~ That rhymed!”

“You're welcome.” Was Izaya's retort, and the second the automated door swung open, Izaya was slipping in. He disappeared on the screen, and Shinra hummed approvingly. So far, so good. There was a whistle from the phone. “Shit. There's bookshelves upon bookshelves in here. This might take awhile.”

“Well hurry up, because I'm getting bored.” Shinra said, eyes flickering back up to that mysterious door. There was probably some classified secret back there. What other explanation could there be for a mysterious locked door with a solid security camera facing it? If the Containment Room was important enough to not be on loop, then that door had to be just as important too. He grinned, glancing back to the open doorway to the Containment Room. He could feel himself starting to vibrate with unexpressed excitement. Was the door to keep people out? Or were they trying to keep something _in_ there? _I wonder how far down Izaya will be willing to go..._

Shinra's eyes suddenly narrowed at the screen. The sound of Izaya shuffling through stacks of files suddenly because unbearably loud against the silence of the room. The hairs on the back of his neck began to rise and his mouth suddenly went dry. “Um, hey, Izaya?” He said, his voice quieter than he had intended.

Down in the Containment Room, Izaya blanched. The manilla files were old and stiff and dusty and dirty beneath his fingertips. There was already dirt caked under his nails, and the feeling was generally disgusting. Luckily, all the files had been properly labeled and stored in a neat and orderly fashion, and so finding the proper section had been a breeze. Section K was a little down the right side of the massive room, and after wedging himself between some metal book shelves – thank Valhalla he was super skinny – he found a shelf sporting the numbers and letters close to what he was looking for.

He was thumbing through the files labels when he thought he heard Shinra say something. “Mmm? Shinra?” _K28!_ He pulled the file out of the stack, a huge smile spreading across his lips. It was a lot thinner than he had expected, given that it was supposed to be this guys 'life work'. But hey. He was a psychologist with a stutter. What did he really expect? “Hey Shinra, I found it!” He exclaimed loudly, his voice echoing despite the fact that the room was packed full. This deserved another high five. The immediate hiss of Shinra's voice sent him silent. He glanced up, glancing around him in the dark for a moment. He ducked to peek under a shelf, pointing his flashlight, but nothing had changed. The door was still open, the room was still dark aside from the red emergency exit flickering, and he had the file he needed in his hands.

What was Shinra's problem? “Hey, what's-”

“Izaya, shut the fuck up and hide somewhere!” There was a bunch of rustling on Shinra's end of the line, but the doctor's voice had been hushed.

Izaya froze – Shinra swearing was just a rare as him- but then he snorted, flipping open the thin file, his flashlight illuminating the contents. He felt his stomach drop, eyes narrowing. He glanced down to the floor, just in case the contents had fallen. There was no way... it couldn't be...

The file was completely empty.

“Shinra, there's nothing in here! The file is empty!” He said, heart suddenly pounding in either frustration or anger. He stared at it a little harder, eyes narrowed like the papers were just invisible.

“I don't care – Izaya turn your flashlight off, he saw it and he went _in!_ ” Shinra snapped, his voice still hushed.

“He?” Izaya flicked the flashlight off, darkness swallowing him whole. He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears and the sound of Shinra breathing. His face was hot. He rubbed at his forehead in confusion, both because of the file and because of what Shinra was saying. At this rate, they would make a bad burglary duo. What could have possibly happened to the file? He turned where he stood, creeping down to the end of the aisle where he had come in. “Who is _he!?_ ” Izaya whispered, peeking around the corner. Was there a security guard? Izaya suddenly remembered Fuzen saying how much trouble they would get in if they were caught. Maybe he should have finished the lengthy email. Was there a patrol. 

Shinra didn't answer, and Izaya moved back down the aisle, creeping towards the end by the wall. He hadn't heard anyone. No footsteps. No breathing. _Is Shinra just trying to scare me?_ Wait.

The door hadn't closed, and he had been in there longer than thirty seconds. It had buzzed when it had opened, and the buzz had never come again.

“Shinra?” He quietly hissed, eyes glaring at the file still tightly clenched in his hand. He wanted to flick on his flashlight, but thought better of it. “Is it a security guard or are you just screwing with me?”

“Well if he's a security guard,” Shinra said, voice laced with sudden irritation, “he forgot his uniform at home. Izaya just shut up and don't move. He went in there when you flashed the flashlight. He was gonna leave, but you caught his attention.”

 _Shit!_ Izaya grit his teeth, peeking out between the shelves. “Any details you wish to spare that could help me out?”

Shinra sighed loudly, and Izaya had the feeling he was no longer on speaker phone. “Besides the fact that he's huge, maybe seven feet tall and built like Simon on steroids?” He suddenly hushed into a whisper, “Some naked guy just went in there. I didn't see him until he was standing in front of the door. Please shut up. I am holding the button so the door won't close. You need to get out. He might be dangerous?”

Izaya froze, not quite understanding the information that he was given.

He glanced out from between the shelves again. There was no one in there...

There was a deafening _crash_ as one of the bookshelves was suddenly knocked over on the opposite side of the room, files and boxes crashing to the ground in the twisted metal from of the bookshelf. Izaya squeaked in surprise, slapping a hand over his mouth and glaring out.

The door buzzed, indicating that the thirty seconds since _someone else_ had triggered the motion sensors had passed by, and the door began to swing closed. Izaya almost yelled at Shinra – he said he was holding the button! - when the door suddenly stopped, metal gyrating against metal, and with a vicious roar, the door was ripped from its hinges. It was thrown back into the room, careening against several shelves and knocking them all down with a crash loud enough to have Izaya covering his ears. Something moved by the door, a heavy, rumbling growl emitting in the room, and Izaya suddenly found himself shaking.

His heavy breathing was echoing in Shinra's ears. “Izaya I'm coming down.” Shinra said, his voice dead quiet.

“No, stay there,” Izaya hissed, confident that he could sneak out and get back upstairs before he was caught. He didn't want Shinra getting dragged down when he could still get out. One person would find it easier to sneak off the floor than two. He got to his knees, carelessly folding and shoving the file into his jacket. He quietly got up to his feet, crouching as he slipped back down the aisle and to the end. He knelt down, not quite ready to glance around. It wasn't like he could see, anyway. He just prayed that years of running and hiding from Shizu-chan would now save his life – _if_ it was in danger.

There was a footstep in his direction, the pressure against the carpet almost silent, and a gentle growl filling the room rose the hairs on the back of Izaya's neck.  
  
“ _Hel-loooo...”_


	3. Seven Floors Under.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's almost like Hide-and-Seek tag.

Izaya pressed his back against the bookshelf, mouth in a firm thin line and his eyes closed. This was _definitely_ not part of the plan. This _definitely_ hadn't been included in Fuzen 's email, either. He swallowed dryly, the almost silent footsteps seconds apart as they slowly crept closer. He tried to keep his breathing even, trying to ignore Shinra's frantic breaths in the ear bud as he rushed to his rescue. _Idiot. You should be leaving!_

He didn't have the time to think about how he could chastise the doctor. He needed a plan, and he needed one _now_. He could just sit still and wait for the monster to pass him, and just pray that the beast didn't have a sense of smell like Shizu-chan. Or, he could...

“Izaya?” Shinra asked, disrupting Izaya's thoughts. The broker almost groaned, but instead whipped his head to the side, too worried to move away. He opened his eyes even though it was pointless. He couldn't see anything. If that thing heard him...

Shinra went quiet again, seemingly satisfied just to hear Izaya breathing. There was another soft footstep in the room, closer this time. Maybe right beside the bookshelf, the beast almost on him. Izaya couldn't help the tremble in his knees, though he simply chalked it up to excitement. He could run. In the worst-case scenario, if the _thing_ didn’t pass by and decided to attack, Izaya could still run. Even in the dark. He had outrun Shizuo in the dead of night on multiple occasions. This would be a breeze.

Right?

He flinched when the floor _creaked_ right beside him, like the beast was leaning over, hovering above his head. He couldn't officially determine if that was what the beast was doing, but it had stopped moving, the slightest rasp of a breath floating from above. Izaya quietly covered his mouth with his hand. Could it see in the dark? If it could, he wasn't doing a very good job at hiding. If it could, he was sitting right there in plain sight. _If it's lived here since the nineties, it's probably adapted to the dark by now._ If it could see him, and he couldn't see it, maybe he didn't have a chance to run after all. If it was anything like Shizu-chan, it would be an incredibly close call.

It suddenly grunted, slamming its foot down right beside Izaya and he tensed, hand still partially covering his mouth as he glanced over into the darkness. The emergency exit light, far behind him, wasn't providing enough for him to get around with and he couldn't even see an outline of the foot that had slammed into the carpet, let alone slip around it. He couldn't tell if the hairs rising on his neck were because it was staring down at him, like a cat spotting a mouse, or if it was just because of the fear of the _unknown._

The beast didn't move. Izaya was ninety-nine percent convinced that it could see him, and that it was staring at him right then, looking down and licking its lips – if it had any – ready to devour him. It was probably waiting, letting the adrenaline kick in and the fear settle, before it pounced. Maybe it was waiting for him to move, waiting for the thrill of the hunt instead of the easy prey of the unaware. Izaya was shifting on his feet while his heart began to pound painfully, getting ready to run. He could bolt. Maybe he could even outrun it? It couldn't be fast than Shizu-chan – only _he_ was faster than Shizuo.

It slammed its foot down again and Izaya jumped, almost springing up and taking off. It was either threatening him, or trying to scare him out of hiding. _Can it see me or can it not?_ It took a step closer, and Izaya decided that yes, it logically made sense that the creature could see him in the dark. He got up on his heels, ready to bolt.

But that one percent came through, and Izaya was momentarily happy when he heard the slight creaks coming out from the hallway. Something had moved, shifted, fallen over, _whatever,_ and the beast above him gasped quietly. The creaks had caught the attention of the beast, distracting him from his original goal. There was a footstep away from Izaya, and Izaya internally cheered.

Izaya could work with that.

But Izaya couldn't really work with Shinra being the new target.

“Izaya!?” He heard the doctor call out softly, probably cowering somewhere in the hallway lest the beastly human see him. His voice trickled in through the door, as well as through the ear buds. _Is he trying to be a distraction?_ Izaya didn't think Shinra was that stupid... until he yelled. “Hey! Izaya!”

“ _Hmm_ _?”_ Izaya practically _saw_ through the darkness, the beast turning to glance his way when Shinra yelled, the echo and static in his ear buds loud enough to catch its attention. Izaya felt the world shift, the tables turn, when he went from being the invisible shadow to being laid completely bare. _He didn't see me!_ He suddenly felt dizzy. His breath caught in his throat and following his instincts, he dashed forward out from his hiding place in the aisle, not caring that he was giving away his location.

The beast let out an angry and feral roar, the sound vibrating under Izaya's feet and in his shoulder when he jumped too far and crashed into the wall. It was a lot closer than he remembered, and he cried out from the jolt and creak of his shoulder as well as the bookshelf that suddenly went crashing to the ground. A file flew up, hitting in him the face, several more flying everywhere with the sound of rippling paper all around him. He tried to dash towards the door, his left fist pressed to the wall for both guidance and support, but he tripped over a box of files that had toppled over in the chaos. He gasped, throwing both of his hands out and bending his knees automatically to try and break his fall, but his fall was broken by the fabric around his neck suddenly constricting, yanking back and pulling him up to his feet so fast that the world – had it not been dark – would have violently spun.

“Izaya!?” Shinra sounded closer, his voice loud and clear in his ear bud, but Izaya wasn't paying attention to that. Instead he was scrambling about, legs kicking when he was held up from the ground by nothing other than a fist curled around the neck of his jacket. Izaya had one hand holding onto a wrist – a very _large_ wrist – while he coughed, the other fumbling about in response to his frantic ideas on how to get away. “ _Izaya!”_

Izaya was panting hard, unable to breathe through the constriction of his throat while his kicks were still connecting with something rock solid every few swings. He tried to speak, tried to scream, but instead he was brought face to face with the monster, his only indication being the rank breath that suddenly blew into his face. He gagged when the giant growled, his breath smelling like sewer water, and his hand finally managed to unzip the pocket of his jacket, fingers clawing in to find something sharp and protective.

The beast rumbled, bringing Izaya closer and opening his mouth to growl out a single hollow word. _“Go.”_

Izaya whimpered in its face, that one word sending violent trembles straight down his body. Izaya's fingers didn't find his favorite flick blade like he had thought they would, but what they did find would have to be good enough. Izaya ripped the flashlight out from his pocket, thumb flicking the switch before he could pass out, the beam lighting up the face of his attacker and blinding him in the process. The giant screamed and flinched away, Izaya torn between throwing up and crying when he saw its _face_ , before it threw him in an attempt to swat the light away.

The ear bud was ripped from his ear while the cord tore through his pocket. He crashed into one of the bookshelves right in front of the exit light, hard enough to knock it over with a soundless cry escaping from him. Files flew up as he went down with it, boxes exploding and the creak of metal echoing throughout the room. Izaya rolled onto his side, eyes blurry with unshed tears as he stared out for a moment, waiting for his head to stop spinning. Izaya was lying halfway across the bookcase, his hips supported by a shelf while his torso sagged in against the files. He was lucky nothing was broken. His entire right side was sore from hitting the bookshelf so hard, but it was a pain he was willing to deal with.

The giant screeched again, picking up and throwing the flashlight towards the open door like it had personally harmed him – his screech halting when the flying flashlight momentarily lit up a stunned looking Shinra in the doorway. Shinra disappeared when the flashlight landed a foot away, rolling and coming to a halt, shining the light in a direction useless to all of them.

“ _No!”_ The giant screamed through the darkness, its voice rising in pitch and volume. It sounded angry all of a sudden, much more angry than it had been before. _“Doctor! No!”_ It's foot suddenly slammed onto the ground and a shelf went hurtling through the air, crashing noisily into the darkness behind the flashlight. Izaya gasped, finally finding the will to push himself up. _Did it hit Shinra!?_

It started to run, heavy footsteps slamming onto the ground with more force than necessary, the mere power behind them weakening Izaya's resolve to flee. If Shinra was critically injured, he _knew_ it would guilt him later to just leave the doctor behind.

A bright white light suddenly shone in Izaya's face and he gagged, turning away. Izaya's head was swimming, his body tossed between throwing up and passing out, but Shinra wasn't going to give him the time to choose. “Izaya, we need to go!” Shinra's phone light had led him the way, and he grabbed onto his friend, pulling him off from the fallen bookshelf. Izaya groaned when Shinra pulled on his arm, dragging him shakily to his feet.

Five seconds. It took five seconds to get Izaya standing, lightly swaying where he stood, but it also took five seconds for the giant to clear the room, advancing upon them like a lion finally striking its prey.

Shinra shoved Izaya and the informant went blindly stumbling towards the doorway before crashing to the ground. Shinra, still armed with the phone light, ducked out of the way just in time to miss the giant's swinging fist. He tried to dash over to Izaya – parkour wasn't his thing – but instead found himself awkwardly crouched in the giant's way.

In the process, the beast tripped over him, kicking him hard enough in the side to wind him. Shinra found himself rolling on the ground from the force before landing in a heap, gasping for breath before pushing himself back up on shaky arms. The camcorder hanging from his neck had slammed hard against his trachea, resulting in him choking for a precious moment. He broke out into a fit of deep and violent coughs before shakily trying to stand up.

“Shinra!” Izaya was suddenly grabbing onto Shinra's forearm, dragging him to his feet while the giant growled menacingly from where he had landed. Shinra struggled to grab his fallen cellphone, taking the liberty of shoving it securely into the pocket of his jeans. Izaya's hand latched onto Shinra's wrist and he dragged him, first stooping down to grab his thrown flashlight and then pulling him into a run towards the door.

They burst out, Shinra already panting, and Izaya whipped around for a split second, shining the flashlight high back into the room to check their situation and hopefully once again blinding the beast to keep him down longer. It was as tall as Egor, maybe even taller, but like Shinra had said, the giant was built like Simon on steroids. His body was made of solid protruding muscles, and he had crushed the entire bookshelf when he had fallen onto it. His skin however, his skin was gruesome and sickly colored enough that even Shinra would throw up.

But the beast wasn't struggling to stand up like the slow oaf it should have been. Izaya didn't shine the light straight into its face momentarily blinding it once again. Oh no. The giant wasn't even struggling to get from the shattered bookshelf. Instead it was standing at the door, the light dancing across burned and peeled skin, breathing heavily enough to outline bones and muscles along its chest. It might have been huge, but it was physically fit.

It was also ready to chase them into the pits of hell. _“Go!”_ It bellowed, growling menacingly before bursting from the door at an angle to cut off their escape route back up to the first floor.

Izaya didn't have to be told twice, and as much as he'd regret the decision later, they could always backtrack. He grabbed onto Shinra's hand, lacing their fingers tightly, and then bolted with the flashlight still firm in his grasps so they wouldn't trip. He all but dragged Shinra down the hallway at top speed, the giant's thick laughter trickling down the walls like a demon as it gave them a head start. _“Tag!”_ It yelled, and the second Izaya made the left first corner, he could hear it chasing after him. Its footsteps sounded like thunder ricocheting down the hallway at a speed much faster than even Izaya himself.

They wouldn't make it anywhere.

Panicking, Shinra suddenly squeezed Izaya's hand before changing their direction, yanking the informant roughly – almost pulling him right off his feet – and dragging him through an open doorway. As soon as they were in the room, Shinra kicked the door back and it creaked mostly closed, leaving nothing more than an inch gap. Izaya flicked the flashlight around quickly, trying to light everything up, until Shinra was pulling him again and towards one of the many lockers lined up against the wall. It looked like a small, messy medical storage room with a wall full of lockers, and a counter with a sink on the other wall, cabinets hanging from above. The room wasn't empty, but Izaya didn’t have enough time to take everything in. There were a few benches that they had to climb over, an overturned chair, and what looked like cups and garbage all over the floor.

They picked the locker that had been closed, throwing it open and both of them crammed inside, Shinra sinking to the floor with his back flat against the wall and Izaya with his back flat against Shinra's chest. The camcorder was sitting over Izaya's shoulders, now proving to be a burden to their situation. The flashlight went off and the door was pulled closed with a squeak by Izaya's fingers, his knees pulled back against his chest as far as they would go. Shinra grabbed onto his ankles, keeping them close. His legs were already going numb, and it was only a matter of time until one of them got tired and slipped out to kick the door back open.

That really wouldn't help them.

Shinra took in a deep but quiet breath before letting it out incredibly slowly, trying to ease the wheeze out of his throat before the giant showed back up and heard him. Izaya was panting, and he could feel his elevated heartbeat through his back. Shinra let go of one his ankles, trusting that he wouldn't do anything stupid and that his already aching muscles wouldn't give out on him, and placed a hand on Izaya's shoulder.

They could hear the heavy footsteps come crashing around the corner. The giant came to a halt, exactly three steps were made down the hallway before everything went silent. They were easily twelve running strides down the hall. Out of all the rooms, the beast shouldn't pick this one.

Hinges creaking, the first door in the hall was ripped away and thrown, crashing down past their own door and skidding away.

Shinra squeezed his hand. Izaya flinched, glancing over hesitantly before relaxing, the tension in his shoulders easing out a little more than they had been. His panting slowly came to a stop as the seconds ticked by, the silence gnawing at their ears and whispering lies. Shinra's hand slipped over to Izaya's neck, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze as he sighed. Perhaps the oaf had missed them?

When the silence continued on for a couple more minutes, Shinra finally sighed. Izaya relaxed beneath his hand, his knees slipping down until his toes almost touched the door without popping it open. Several more minutes passed in silence. Nothing stirred, nothing else was ripped from its hinges, and nothing was kicked – a situation both reassuring and alarming. Shinra sighed heavily, leaning his head forward and bumping into Izaya's skull.

A couple of seconds later and Izaya's shoulder was violently twitching. Shinra would have thought the informant was crying had it not been for the little squeaky noises he was making.

Appalled, Shinra sat back, his mouth dropped open. “Are you... laughing?” He whispered before cracking a smile himself. Izaya snorted, placing both of his hands over his mouth in an attempt to keep quiet, shaking his head in disagreement even though he was _evidently_ laughing.

Laughing after he had been attacked and then almost chased down by the scariest looking man he had ever seen, and laughing that they were now cramped up and hiding in a locker. Izaya's laughter was contagious, and Shinra almost went down into the hysterics with him had the sound of hinges creaking not stopped him. He squeezed his hand hard, Izaya gasping from the unexpected pressure on his neck and Shinra slapped an extra hand over Izaya's mouth to keep him quiet. He held his breath, as did Izaya, and all they could do was stare at the darkness ahead of them.

Shinra was almost convinced he had imagined the creaking sound. Nothing else moved, nothing else made noise. The seconds turned into a solid minute.

But Izaya tensed under his hand, pushing himself back and grabbing onto Shinra's calves like something was looming in his face.

Shinra held his breath, one hand dropping down and into the pocket of his lab coat just in case. He stared ahead at the swallowing depths, eyes darting back and forth even though he couldn't see much. One of Izaya's hands let go, disappearing into his own pocket, and Shinra took a gamble at which attack Izaya would make. The flashlight or his blade? Shinra had a pretty good idea, but he hoped it wouldn't come down to that.

The locker made a gentle scratching sound right in front of Izaya. The door creaked as it slowly popped open, Izaya's and Shinra's feet pulled back far enough away to not be responsible. Izaya's heart rate suddenly picked up, and Shinra willed his not to match it.

The door ever so slowly swung away, the eerie scrape of metal on metal going straight into the depths of Shinra's stomach and making him want to vomit. The creak lasted until the locker door was completely open, cooler air blowing in, chilling Shinra's skin and bringing with it a rancid smell.

“ _You're it.”_

Izaya was moving too fast for Shinra to follow, the flashlight out of his pocket and shining in an instant to blind their attacker once again. He threw himself forward and onto his feet to flee, one hand reached back and grabbing Shinra's, but he immediately froze up and halted, Shinra falling against his back in confusion.

Izaya's hand was shaking in Shinra's.

The giant was kneeling in front of the locker blocking their exit, one hand over his eyes as if he had been expecting the light and a large toothy smile splitting across his face. He had double rows of yellow, pointed teeth behind a torn set of lips, his grey skin sporting long strands of coarse hair peeling off his body in flakes. His index and middle finger suddenly separated, a large glassy black eye rolling in their direction, almost cleanly popping from its socket.

Shinra was the next to react.

He grabbed Izaya's head and pushed it down, swinging his other arm out in an arc rival to Izaya's own, the glint of the flashlight reflecting off of cool metal. The giant squeezed his eyes shut just in time, Shinra's scalpel catching skin and sliding, slicing a perfectly straight line from the giants wrist straight down to the tip of his middle finger.

It wasn't deep, but it was shocking enough.

The giant yelped in surprise and Izaya shoved the flashlight into his face, bashing the metal end off of the top of the beast's shiny head. It lurched back and away from the attack and both Izaya and Shinra jumped forward, shoving with both hands to force the giant over and onto the floor so they could get out and run.

The monster lurched away screaming before swinging his arm, catching Izaya by his legs and sending him crashing to the ground. His death grip on Shinra brought the doctor down too, his weapon hand opening to try and catch himself before he fell. Izaya suddenly screeched an octave higher than the any pitch Shinra had ever heard from him, before he crashed down onto his back. The flashlight went flying, skittering across the floor and playing scary shadows of monsters and creatures against the wall as it rolled.

It came to a stop, lighting up the monster who was already on his feet, stomping unnecessarily over to the two fallen men. _“Go!”_

Izaya gasped – in pain or fear, Shinra didn't know – and struggled to get himself up and onto his knees. The only explanation he could think of for that word was that it wanted a chase. A _game_ so to speak. Shinra was a second behind Izaya, his lack of exercise getting the better of him. His was only on his hands and knees when the giant sprinted the last two steps, a gargantuan hand wrapping around the back of Shinra's skull, fingers not even bothering to pull on the hair but squeezing against the bone itself, hauling him up.

“My temporal bone, my temporal!” Shinra whined, hands reaching up to grab onto fingers and a wrist as he struggled to get free, panic taking over. He ended up on his feet, shaking his head and almost losing his glasses in the process. Celty would go on a rampage if he was killed, and he _definitely_ would like to live.

The beast above him growled, holding Shinra where he stood on his feet instead of lifting him up. Izaya was on his feet, his right hand bleeding profusely from the scalpel lodged straight through it, glancing over with wide eyes at his friend. He didn't doubt for a second that the giant could and would crush Shinra's skull. Even for a monster, its disfigured nose was pulling back in disgust, lips turning down and pulling disgustingly at the skin, more flaking and peeling away. It was displaying an ugly human emotion, an emotion Izaya knew incredibly well. _“_ _Doctor. No!”_

Izaya didn't necessarily think. He just responded. He responded to the facial expressions and the body language, the way that the giant was holding Shinra at arms length and leaning back against his hips, like the mere sight of the man both disgusted and threatened him. But mostly, Izaya was reacting to the look on his face, the same look Shizuo got whenever he saw Izaya in Ikebukuro. The same look Shizuo got right before his hand clenched, twisting and deforming metal until it was nothing more than an unrecognizable mass between his palms.

Izaya didn't realize he was yelling. He just shot forward, hand swiping out from his pocket and driving his flick blade in and sinking it between skin and bone, before using both hands to the best of his ability to slice it downward. His slit open the front of the giant's hand, that hand instantly going limp with fingers unclenching. Shinra ducked forward, trying to move out of the way before the giant recovered – it would be stupid to assume that the hand was no longer a threat, but Izaya's lunge had put him directly in the path of the monster.

The giant's other hand came up, punching Izaya in the jaw hard enough to send the informant flying back into the lockers with a small yelp. One of the doors slammed shut against his weight, the heavy thud sounding painfully loud in the small room when the locker was slammed shut. Shinra dashed for the flashlight, picking it up and whirling it around at the giant, simply enraging him. He dashed over to the nearby medical counter, grabbing the cabinet door to swing it open, hoping that maybe there was a sedative or even poison to use. The cabinet door came off in his hands, the metal rusted and the wood decayed, and so he simply opted to throw it towards the approaching giant.

The door simply bounced off the giant's chest, not stopping him one bit.

Shinra gasped, his brain running around in circles trying to come up with a plan. He turned back, hands swiping at the cabinet contents, but there was nothing even remotely useful. He whirled back, the giant already towering over him and salivating angrily at the mouth. “Izaya!” He tried to run off to the side, to run around the giant, but the beast moved with him, blocking off his path like a brick wall.

“ _No! Doctor!”_ It hissed lunging forward and Shinra had the thought to scream. Nothing came out, but he did flinch away, scuttling out of harm's reach while the golem of a man barrelled into the wall, crushing the medical counter with his weight alone. The monster turned, storming closer once again. Shinra stumbled back and closer to the door, his breath ragged and sides hurting, and the next thing he knew, he was falling onto his back, staring up with no idea how to escape. He _could_ run and just leave Izaya to die.

He could, but he wouldn't.

There was a flicker of black against the flashlight and Izaya rushed up, sinking another blade into the back of the monster's knee. The giant went down, Izaya skillfully hopping over his shoulder and landing by Shinra's feet. “Get up!” He yelled, reaching forward with his good hand and grabbing Shinra's extended one, hoisting him to his feet with one harsh pull.

The giant was already getting back up, huffing and puffing and generally sounded irritated before he bellowed again as the two took off, back into the hallway. With heavy footsteps splintering the floor, he chased after them, screaming down the hall.

Izaya was back tracking, dragging Shinra behind him with the sporadic flashlight to guide their way. Shinra was heaving, but managing to keep up as they took down the hallway, making a left turn and sprinting. Izaya was panting, Shinra pulling against his hand when he glanced over his shoulder to check how close the giant was...

“Izaya!” Shinra was trying to stop, to slow down, suddenly halting and using both hands to pull Izaya to a stop too.

“Fuck!” Izaya skidded to a halt not soon enough, and collided chest first into a dead end. He had turned the wrong way at some point in the maze. He was supposed to turn right, wasn't he? The stairs? Where were the stairs? He turned around frantically, “Which hallway did we... shit!”

The giant was already halfway down the hall, his sprint dropping down into a slow trot. Still holding hands, Shinra backed against the wall, the flashlight shakily splaying over the monster blocking their way. Izaya took a step back, free but bloody hand groping his pockets for any more blades. He had some in his pants pocket, but genius him had worn the long jacket. He started pulling at the fabric with his injury, trying to hike it up high enough to delve into one of the pockets. It hurt like hell, but he didn't have time to succumb to pain.

“Hey!” Shinra yelled, flashlight still shaking as he tried to stall. The giant took a few steps forward, eyes widening so far that they became perfect circles, just slipping far enough from their sockets to be truly unnatural. “Stay there!”

The giant growled, slamming his feet down in anger as he took a couple of steps closer, a deep rumble vibrating against the floor. “ _No! Doctor!”_

“I don't think he likes you,” Izaya hissed in warning, his hand shaking bad enough to lose his clutch on his jacket. He tried to pull his hand free of Shinra's, but the doctor had a death grip on him. “Hey! Big guy! How about we go get some coffee and discuss this, okay?”

The giant's response was an ear-splitting roar. He pointed a finger at Izaya, screaming _“Go!”_

“Go where?” Shinra asked. He had pressed back into Izaya's shoulder, his knees threatening to give out. This wasn't the kind of excitement he had been looking for.

“ _Out!”_ The giant screamed still pointing at Izaya, before whipping an accusatory finger in Shinra's direction. _“Die!!!”_ He stomped forward, feet slapping the ground more for the intimidating effect than anything else. Neither Shinra nor Izaya doubted the creature's intelligence despite his Japanese.

Izaya returned the death grip on Shinra's hand, the jacket being hiked up at a much more frantic speed and Shinra had half the mind to drop the flashlight, searching for a blade of his own. The light rolled when it hit the ground, casting nothing but eerie shadows over all of them He had brought a few scalpels just in case he found some bodies and could get samples – he couldn't let them cross contaminate, after all. He was probably just as armed as Izaya was.

Before either of them could grasp their weapons, the giant stormed forward at a much faster pace, throwing his arms out as if he meant to grab them when he suddenly stumbled. It fell forward, hands slamming right beside Shinra and Izaya's heads, respectively. Both men yelped, leaning further back into the wall as that rancid stench filled their nostrils. Shinra was sure they were going to die, grabbing onto Izaya's sleeve with his free hand and looking away from the giants death glare. Izaya's face was stone cold, but his breathing was dangerously panicked.

A look of betrayal flashing across the giant's face like they were the root of all his problems, right before the floor gave out.

Izaya yelped, grabbing onto Shinra's arm as a sizable crater split the floor. The giant caught Izaya's ankle, and the next thing Shinra knew, they were free falling when the entire floor collapsed. The old wooden floor did nothing to keep the heavy giant up, and he crashed down, the informant and doctor simply trailing after him. One, two, three, four floors down and the giants fall was finally broken. He only made a dent, the wooden panels buckling but still supporting his weight. Izaya and Shinra came crashing down over his head, taking him down with them, both of them clutching the other like a lifeline. They hit the ground and rolled, their hold on each other ripping apart and sending them flying in different directions, the flashlight falling almost as an afterthought and crashing into the giant's head. He was already landing on his hands and knees, the sound of wood splintering beneath him. The flashlight rolled out towards Shinra, as he propped himself up on his elbows and blearily glanced out. His glasses were missing from his face so the giant looked like a massive grey blob. Suddenly, everything got ten times scarier when he couldn't see.

“ _Go!”_ The giant yelled again, trying to get to his feet, but the floorboards were too weak. They cracked beneath him and he fell to his hips, stuck in the floor. With one last bellowing roar, the rest of the panels gave out, and he was falling into the basement depths of the asylum.

Shinra sighed heavily, flopping forward onto the floor. His forehead was throbbing from the earlier assault, and he was somewhat flustered that Izaya had been so quick to save him. He let his cheek rest against the floorboards, breathing in the dust and stale air of the basement before chuckling.

That had been close.

Izaya coughed nearby, and the doctor suddenly realized that they still weren't safe. There could be more giants for all they knew.

Painfully, he dragged himself up and to his hands and knees, reaching out for the flashlight and then shining it around. He spotted his glasses – only because they reflected the light straight back into his face and made him squint – and crawled over the whole foot and a half to pick them up. On his face, he was relieved the see that they hadn't cracked. Looked like his father's version of scratch resistant was actually shatter proof.

Shakily, he hauled himself up to his feet, wobbling over to his friend whom he spotted crippled on the floor. He dropped to his knees right beside him, Izaya glancing up through half-lidded eyes. A small smile split his lips, and he giggled, before coughing. “That... was fun.”

“Heh,” Shinra snorted in return, “I think I've had too much fun today, are you okay?” He asked, setting the flashlight down beside him and reaching out. He gently pushed on Izaya's shoulders, giving him a once over. Izaya's jaw was completely black from the punch he took earlier, and his bleeding hand, clenched tightly in his good one, was slick with blood.

Izaya groaned before rolling over onto his back. “My hand hurts.” He complained, forcing himself to sit up. He brought his forearm up to his head, taking in a deep, shuddering breath. Shinra was suddenly worried that he had a concussion.

“Here,” Shinra reached out, catching Izaya's wounded hand carefully by the wrist. The informant seemed to be painfully sore as opposed to critically hurt. “Let's go find another medical room so I can fix this up.” He said. He brushed at Izaya's hair, watching as dust and dirt came flying off.

Izaya gave him a weak smile, nodding. He held out an elbow, not willing to give up his good hand. “Yeah, let's go.”

 

\- % & ~ -

 

Out in the car, Namie dropped her book to her lap and huffed. She glanced out into the darkness of the night, eyes narrowing. The wind was still blowing, the leaves on the trees rustling and the long grass swaying in unison. There was no sign of movement, no sign of her employer or his annoying friend, not even sign of birds or wildlife.

It had to have been an hour already.

She pulled her phone out of the center cup holder, pressing the button so it would light up and sighing. It had been almost forty minutes. She quickly sent a text to her brother – not that he would respond, as usual. Izaya's little sisters had been stalking him and that _girl_ for quite some time, but she had found herself growing more and more irritated by her brother's growing affections. He wasn't supposed to actually love Mika, dammit!

Huffing again, Namie glanced back to her cellphone in her hand. That was when everything had started to get weird for her. She still loved Seiji – Gods knew she always would – but he was starting to genuinely fall in love with Mika. The more time he spent with her and not with the real head, the more he seemed to become fixated on _her_ , the closest thing he could get. And, as much as it irritated Namie, it was becoming genuine. Instead of the stalker initiating the affection, Seiji was starting to do it out of his own interests.

Perhaps he was just getting older.

“Seiji...” Namie sighed, glanced back down the erotica book her lap once again. She liked to imagine the characters as her and Seiji instead. Perhaps it was time to remind him that he loved the head and only the head, and only his sister, dear Namie, knew where it was. She was the real light in the dark, not Mika.

But then Izaya happened.

Scoffing, Namie threw the book into the passenger seat and picked up her cellphone. It was stupid. It wasn't like her. And yet it had happened. There were just some things she'd rather not think about, and to be completely honest, she felt like she had betrayed herself. Scrolling through her contacts list, she landed on Izaya's name. They needed to hurry their asses up so she could leave and go home. There was only so much sitting she liked to do before she got tired of trying to make sense of the madness going on through her head. She had liked it better when her love was simple.

Narrowing her eyes, she suddenly contemplated on whether or not to call him.

Was it really necessary to rush them? Izaya was an ass, and he would only tease her anyway. _Oh? Is my dear secretary worried?_ He would probably say, much to her chagrin because _yes_ , for some unbeknownst stupid reason she _was_ worried. She knew he could handle himself, and Shinra was quite capable as well, but there was something in the air. Something heavy and foreboding. She liked to think that she was only worried for _her_ safety, but the little voice in the back of her head continued to remind her that Izaya was a complete idiot, and that between him and Shinra, they would probably be too busy acting like dumbasses to realize that they were even in danger.

Or maybe she was just over reacting.  
  
Dropping her cellphone into her lap, she reached back for her book. Izaya and Shinra had exactly nineteen minutes to get their asses out before she called them and threatened to leave them stranded.


	4. We Need To Talk About This.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There were just too many questions and not enough answers. There were too many factors, and not enough explanations. And even though the secrets are slowly being relieved as ugly and cruel, there's still something deadlier lurking in the shadows.

Namie dropped her book down to her lap and rested her back against her seat. A frown was pulling at her lips while she closed her eyes more out of irritation than anything else. The date scene she had just read had been so cute, and so perfect, that she couldn't _help_ but picture her and Seiji in the characters place. He would be acting like a true gentleman, and she would love it every step of the way.

Until the daydream turned a little scary, and Seiji was replaced with someone quite less charming.

She sighed, sitting back up and glancing out towards the castle of an asylum, the air around it becoming progressively more eerie. Without even looking at her phone, Namie could already tell that more than nineteen minutes had passed. The area was much darker than she remembered aside from the light in her cab, and the wind had all but stopped, leaving behind nothing more than a flitting trail in it's wake. It wasn't exactly warm inside her vehicle anymore, but it didn't seem to be half as cold as it was outside. She could only imagine the temperature inside of the asylum.

It was a good thing they all brought jackets.

This 'mission' had gone on for too long, she decided, once the wind picked back up and began to howl past her window, shaking the trees and making her feel generally uncomfortable. She clicked her tongue, deciding to finally do the inevitable. If the idiots were in trouble, they would have called, right? They just had to be screwing around. Namie reached for the phone still sitting in her cup holder and lit up the screen.

Another forty minutes had passed, she suddenly realized with settling horror, and still there was no sign of her employer nor his ridiculous friend. “Shit,” She picked it up, instantly clicking on contacts to once again to find Izaya's name. He was never late, not even when she threatened him. He never came out and _said_ that he contacted her because she had given him a time limit, but he always did. That was just the way it was, and that was the way that it had always been. _That bastard had better have a good reason as to why they are so late_ , she had given them an hour, right? _Or did I say an hour and a half?_ She figured that Shinra had probably led Izaya astray...

No, she had to stop that train of thought. They were equally guilty for being idiots, and Izaya had been the one to drag Shinra along in the first place. If anything, they were fueling each other's fire and were exploring unnecessarily, causing trouble as they went.

She hit call, hastily putting the phone up to her ear while watching the front door, just in case they were finally on their way out. Everything seemed so... creepy now. She had sat out by herself for just long enough to worry about the safety of those inside.

Which was beyond ridiculous in itself. Maybe there really was something in the air.

Seconds later, the call went straight to voicemail. Namie sighed, hanging up and trying Shinra. With the quick flick of her wrist and a couple of contacts later, she attempted to call the annoying underground doctor, just to get the same response. The line went straight to voicemail.

Nothing.

Wherever they were, they didn't have service. And in comparison to where she was, she still had full bars.

 _Great._ She considered just waiting longer, but instantly decided that it probably wasn't her best option. Out of all the things she could do, she decided to do the worst one. Honestly, the things she sacrificed just to make sure that her employer didn't end up dead. She liked to claim it was just for the pay. _Is that really all you care about?_ Rolling her eyes, she leaned over the center console to pop open the glove compartment, brushing her hand around until she found her mini flashlight. She sat back with it tightly clasped in her hands, and eyes the compartment once again. Underneath the secret back was her gun.

She suddenly snorted. What would she need that for? She was just getting out for a quick stretch, and a quick look around to check whether or not her employer and friend had actually fallen and broken their legs. Or something like that.

Getting out of the vehicle, she took nothing with her but the flashlight and her phone, and her keys. If Shinra and Izaya came back, she didn't want them driving away on her. She put on her leather jacket, wrapping it around her tightly because the air was a little chillier than it had been earlier, and she shoved her phone into her pocket before slamming the door closed. She didn't feel the need to lock it. They were out in the middle of nowhere, and there was no one and nothing near them for miles at least. The vehicle was also well hidden from view, who would steal it?

Wrapping one arm around her stomach to keep the jacket in place, she set out towards the huge building almost timidly with her little flashlight to guide the way. Sure, she had worked in a lab where unspeakable things had happened, but this was just a little different. It was huge and old and abandoned. No one had been in there for Gods knew how long, and there could be any unspeakable sorts of thing lurking in the dark. She almost wondered how much safer she was in the car, compared to being out here. Everything just seemed... odd.

Odd was the word she was going to use, and that was the word that was going to stick. The air outside was colder than she had expected, and it tore through her thin nylons with next to no effort. She shivered as she cut across the driveway with quick steps, creeping past the eerie swinging gate and quickly making her way to the front door. Everything blurred by as she walked up to the massive entrance, looming and cold and desolate. The wind blew in her face, ruffling her hair just as she reached out towards the door. It didn't budge under her fingertips so she brought her body closer, feeling a colder draft coming from inside. She peeked in through the small crack. Her flashlight bounced off the shiny linoleum flooring, and the entire building seemed to groan at her presence, like it was sick of having people stick their noses into its secrets. She could easily slip through, but if _something_ had actually happened to the informant and the doctor, then she didn't want to meet the same fate.

No. If something had happened, she would need to be smarter than that. She took a step back, glancing up. The building was falling apart, and it even looked like it was one step away from collapsing. From where she stood, the towers loomed over her threateningly, screaming out in loneliness as the wind whipped by.

No wonder Shinra had suspected there were secrets. Now she suspected them too.

Like what could they have possibly stored up there? If Izaya and Shinra were going to take their sweet-assed time exploring, then she would do some of her own. Stepping away from the front door, she cut through the tall grass – there was a small path that stopped under a window, which had Izaya written all over it – but instead of stopping there, she continued around, the small beam of her flashlight leading the way to the side of the building.

 _They better not be hiding out here._ She came to an old, worn wooden fence, _Beware of Dog_ scrawled messily across a sign nailed to one of the dark, decayed boards. She flashed the light over it a couple of times, eyes narrowing, but there couldn't be any danger behind the fence. The dog, or dogs, would be long since dead, and therefore they couldn't possibly pose her any threat.

Eyeing the fence carefully, Namie didn't waste any time. She stuck the flashlight between her teeth and then grabbed the top of the lowest ripped board, hoisting herself up and over it. She landed on the other side gracefully, the grass rustling and parting for her before keeling over in a gentle gust of wind, giving her a clear view of the fenced-in yard. She stood up, not bothering to brush herself because she was going to get dirty again anyway, and reclaimed the flashlight in her hand. She shone the beam around, witnessing what once must have been a courtyard, and sighed.

It didn't look like there was anything back there.

This didn't discourage her, though, and she was wading through the tall grass without so much as glancing behind her. There was nothing but tall grass, overgrown trees with leaves heavily hanging from the branches, a couple of benches here and there, placed in such a way that people could communicate. She took a moment to imagine what the area _could_ have looked like thirty years ago, and she decided that it would have been a nice place in that time frame.

She moved closer to the building, shining the light along the wall. There was a set of shattered glass doors hastily nailed shut in boards – they must have been the entrance and exit for the patients – but what caught her attention was a little nook in the wall further down, jutting out like it didn't want to attract attention, but along the perfectly straight walls, this little protrusion stuck out like a sore thumb. Upon closer inspection – and she stepped in something gross and unidentifiable along the way – she couldn't help but notice the steel door hidden from view by a large tree, both the tree and door tall and looming like they were going to swallow her up and spit her back out. It was just the way everything was placed, and how she never would have noticed the door if she didn't have her flashlight.

But at the end of the day, she was trained to look out for strange things like this. These were the kinds of things that spelled out secrets and terror. It made her shiver in a pleasurable way.

“Strange.” She had a smile on her lips as she wedged herself in between the tree and the wall, just slipping through and into the densest corner of the yard. She moved closer, reaching for the door, and it swung open easily with the creak of old, unused hinges, when she pushed just hard enough. She glanced to the lock system, noticing that it was ruined like someone had forced the door open, and hummed to herself. She was starting to act like Shinra, of all people.

Strange. There was something strange about it all.

Shining her flashlight down, she was greeted with what looked like a never ending staircase. The stairs were lightly rusted, but they looked sturdy enough. The handrail and steps were both dark in colour, and they didn't look like they had gotten much use. The walls were nicely painted still, no streaks of molded colour or water leakage anywhere.

Perhaps a quick look wouldn't hurt.

Glancing around like she was making sure that nothing was watching her, she hesitantly took a step down, gently pulling the door closed, or as closed as it would get, behind her just in case. She didn't want anyone knowing where she was. And just to make double sure, she pulled out her phone to check her service levels. Izaya had said there were only four flours to the basement, the fifth one being off limits to just about everyone.

Suddenly, the thought crossed her mind that curiosity killed the cat. She wondered where Shinra and Izaya were, and suddenly realized that she too was curious to see just what she might find.

With nothing but her flashlight and cellphone, she descended into the depths of the stairwell, the shadows and depths of the darkness whispering her name.

 

\- % & ~ -

 

“Sit,”

Shinra had found another little medical room similar to the one they had been trapped in earlier, equipped with a wall of lockers, two benches, and a counter sporting better medical equipment. Unlike the last room, this one was nicer and actually stocked without any signs of tampering or disruption, and, also like the last room, they weren't cramming themselves into a locker to hide from imminent death.

Izaya plopped down on one of the benches, his face impassive and his eyes cold as he stared at the wall a little too distantly. He was gripping his injured hand hard, the pain obviously getting the better of him the longer he waited to pull the scalpel out. Shinra was starting to worry that it might get infected, given the dust and dirt and grime they were currently sneaking through. He also imagined that Izaya, just like Shinra himself, was probably sporting a wicked headache, though the informant had stubbornly been refusing to express just how much pain he was in.

Call it pride or something.

A quick rummage later and Shinra sat on the bench across from Izaya, dropping various bottles and what looked like a wrapped package of gauze down beside him. He still had the flashlight, but he was holding it out for Izaya to take with a smile that would charm most people – if he had ditched the dorky get up, anyway.

Izaya eyed the flashlight warily, not quite sure what Shinra wanted, or why he should even reach out to take it. His pupils were blown huge, his eyes not really focusing on anything in particular.

“Take this,” Shinra said, flipping the flashlight in his hand so that the handle was within Izaya's reach. “And then give me your hand.” He tried to sound as casual as he could. If he sounded too demanding Izaya would bristle, but if he was too gentle, the informant would think he was pitying him.

Izaya, finally registering what Shinra wanted from him, chuckled before complying, taking the flashlight between his good bloody fingers and hesitantly surrendering his injured hand to the doctor. He aimed the light so that Shinra could see what he was doing, watching a little too closely as Shinra did a quick look over on the state of his hand. He gently twisted it palm up until Izaya hissed before holding it steady and coming up with a quick course of action.

“This is going to hurt.” Shinra said lightly, and Izaya had the energy left to smile. He looked tired, but given their circumstances, Shinra wasn't surprised. Of course it was going to hurt. Why wouldn't it hurt? “So the question now is: How do you want to do this?”

Izaya glanced at the injury before shrugging impassively, flitting his eyes to the corner of the room. “Just rip it out, I guess?”

Shinra nodded, and to Izaya's shock and absolute horror, Shinra did exactly that within the next five seconds. His fingers wrapped around the handle of the scalpel easily and he jerked it straight up and out of Izaya's hand.

Izaya yelped in surprise, throwing his arm in front of his mouth to keep himself quiet just in time. Shinra grinned, dropping the scalpel onto a towel beside him and picking up one of the open bottles. “We’re taking the get-it-done-as-fast-as-possible route,” He informed, scanning the label before nodding, glancing to open of the other bottles for only a second. “Are you ready?” Izaya shook his head no, jaw clenched and eyes watering, but Shinra didn't give him time to recover. There was no point. This part was going to hurt worse, and the fast her got it done, the faster the whole issue would be dealt with. “Breathe in... and... breathe out...” As soon as Izaya exhaled, Shinra quickly dumped some of the contents of the bottle into Izaya's palm.

Izaya still screeched, inhaling sharp enough to choke before trying to pull his hand back. If he didn't have a headache before, he definitely had one now.

Shinra glanced up, a wry smile sitting on his lips. “Hey, breathe through your nose. Don't forget to breathe, _breathe,_ ” Shinra reminded, watching in slight satisfaction as the informant rapidly inhaled through his nose. Izaya pulled on his hand again, free hand clenching against the flashlight while it wavered unsteadily in the air. He was still trying, and Shinra suddenly felt bad for being a little mean and rushing him. Shinra let go of his wrist and Izaya instantly pulled it back, cradling it against his chest. His breathing wasn't evening out, and he shot Shinra a dirty look. “Hey, I am just helping. It was quicker this way, right?” He asked, smiling even though Izaya was probably planning to gut him with his own blades. “Hey, relax, let me pour some water, it will ease the burn.” Shinra held open the water bottle, the cap already removed, but Izaya simply glared in it's general direction.

Shinra sighed and sat back, deciding to give him some time. Several minutes later, Izaya finally breathed out heavily, catching his breath and then rolling his eyes, trying to play it off. “I really am starting to think you're a sadist.” He said, his voice gruff from the pain and tension.

“And I am sure that you're the masochist.” Shinra said, grabbing the gauze and tearing the package open. He had never seen gauze packed in such a way, it was almost fascinating.

Izaya snorted before giving up his hand again, a little more hesitantly than the first time. “So what, we going to start an S&M show? I'm sure Shiki would know the right people to sell that to.”

Shinra rolled his eyes, carefully taking Izaya's hand and scooting a bit closer to he could wrap it. Izaya flinched at first contact, but Shinra heavily grabbed onto his wrist, holding it steady. He decided to change the subject. “By the way, that was really... nice of you earlier... to come save me. Thanks.”

Izaya rolled his eyes, not being one to play along with the gushy feelings of human beings. “Nice,” He replied, almost laughing. “It was nice of me to save your life.” He snickered, before breaking out into laughter. “ _Nice!_ You're welcome, friend!”

“Hey, keep it down, what if _he_ comes back?” Shinra snapped, reaching out to cover Izaya's mouth. Izaya leaned back out of the way, almost dropping the flashlight in surprise. “I don't know how many more floors he fell through, but I'm going to go ahead and guess that it wasn't that many.”

Izaya's giggles subsided and he nodded, regaining his composure as best as he could. “True. Speaking of the beast, you might want to take that lab coat off. It seemed to set him off.” Izaya gesture, wincing every now and again as Shinra continued to wrap up his hand. The white, clean gauze was already soaking through red, and that had Shinra worrying more than he had intended to. Perhaps he should wrap it twice?

Shinra shrugged. “So I noticed. I think he had a condition.” He thought back to the beasts skin, and how it was peeling from his face, as well as the texture and the colour.

Izaya was automatically laughing, the shaking in his shoulders only getting more violent the more he giggled. “Con- _condition?_ ” He asked, saying the word as seriously as he could before breaking back out into hysterical laughter. “You think he had a condition? He obviously has a condition, Shinra. There was skin peeling from his face and his strength was on par with Shizu-chan, not to mention his speed. And let's not forget, we're in a _mental hospital_.” Izaya was hardly containing himself his giggles bubbling over into louder bursts of laughter.

Just as abruptly as he had started, he stopped.

“But his behavior, that was incredibly strange.” Izaya leveled the flashlight just as Shinra finished wrapping his hand. “His behavior was very strange indeed.” He took his hand back, inspecting the bandage while Shinra attempted to clean up the mess he had made. He had a thought to wrap it again, just in case “I mean, between the two of us, he was definitely out to kill you first.”

Shinra stood up, taking the flashlight from Izaya and exchanging it with a cloth so he could wipe his hand. Izaya looked at it blankly before taking it carefully between his forefinger and thumb. Shinra hummed in agreement before turning back towards the counter. “He recognized me as a doctor.” Shinra said, setting the flashlight down and popping open one of the bottom cabinets. He had spotted a half empty case of water bottles earlier, but in his hurry to fix up Izaya's hand, he hadn't bothered to grab one to drink. “I'm going to guess that he was one of the patients here.”

Shinra stood up, two water bottles in hand. He glanced over just in time to see Izaya shiver. “I don't think this was your regular mental facility.” Izaya muttered, eyes narrowing in slight disgust. He was definitely thinking about his humans, and what they must have thought or felt in order to create such a monster – given that he was mutated and not natural, that was.

Shinra grinned, handing Izaya a bottle with a small glint in his eyes. “That Fuzen guy did deem it a 'medical facility', did he not? Don't you find that a bit contradictory? I believe your words were, 'his goal was to fix mental health without the use of drugs', and 'his files are hidden on the third floor because they're controversial', or something like that?”

Izaya cracked open the lid, but didn't take a drink. He also didn't glance up, keeping his gaze fixed on Shinra's scuffed up dress shoes. “Are you implying that he set me up?”

Shinra shook his head, plopping back down on the bench. “No, I don't think he was the brains behind this, but he played along. You did your research, and I trust in your skills enough to know that you got the right information. But why would some low-life psychologist who 'believes he can fix mental health without drugs' refer to his personal establishment as a 'medical' facility and not a 'mental' facility? Unless he knew what they were actually doing down here wasn't humane? Namie worked in a medical facility, and there they were testing on severed heads and were calling me in to give little girls plastic surgery. They called it a pharmaceutical company, but unless Namie never referred to it as a legal drug facility. Do you get what I'm saying?”

“Do I understand that we don't actually know what's going on here? Yes, I understand, Shinra.” Izaya said just a little bitterly before taking a sip from the water bottle. Shinra hoped it would ease the scratch in his friend's throat. “Fuzen came to me for help to get his file, but at the end of the day, there was no file to retrieve. I think we're looking at this wrong. Fuzen couldn't have played me... he wasn't confident enough.”

Shinra sighed, downing half his water bottle before he started an argument. Izaya beat him first though, stating his personal thoughts before Shinra could interject his own.

“I think someone played Fuzen. There isn't enough evidence to say whether or not this 'higher person' intended to drag me in, let alone you.” Izaya was looking off, not quite seeing Shinra, “It's possible that Fuzen was played, and, without knowing what was actually in here, he came to me to get the files.”

“I don't think so, that doesn't make sense,” Shinra muttered, leaning back. “Fuzen couldn't have been completely oblivious, because his choice in words contradict his innocent act. I'm still hung up on the medical terms, Izaya. And what's with this Cognitive-Mishap? It's quite the interesting term, I have to say! Some kind of mental mishap! It sounds like they were experimenting with lab rats, and they made a mistake! But instead of a disaster! Something wondrous but dangerous happened! See, and even his terminology for his work fits into 'mental facility' a lot better than medical. A controversial brain experiment can't be drug free, and it probably has a lot to do with ethics and religion and tampering with cells. Only stuff like that gets locked away like how this Fuzen guy described. You can't just up and take someone's work, unless it is harmful to society as a mass.”

“You could just be over analyzing it and pulling at strings.” Izaya chugged back the water in frustration before sighing, wiping at his mouth and crumpling the bottle. His eyes drifted close for a moment and stayed that way just a bit too long. “There's something weird going on here, and seeing how we've been dragged into it, I plan on figuring it out.”

Shinra huffed. “Okay, but I'm pretty sure you've been set up by someone. I mean, why you? You're an informant. He could have easily hired a mercenary in the city, there are _so many_ that could go horror diving but no. He went to you.”

“Maybe he didn't know who else to go to, or figured that, as an informant, if I wouldn't do it myself I would at least know someone who would?” Izaya leaned back, glancing to the ceiling. “Ahhh, this is what I love best. Why people do the things that people do! Ah! How exciting – wait.” Face crinkling, Izaya suddenly glared at Shinra in thought. “His stutter. I found it strange for a psychologist of his apparent standing. He seemed incredibly nervous, but I just thought he was being weird – you know how humans are, they're sometimes really weird when they want things but they don't know how to get it, and I just chalked it up to add to the rest of his very strange personality... but... you're making sense. If he was forced to come to me... it would make sense for him to be nervous.” He narrowed his eyes, seeming to think about it a little harder. “The easiest way to get a human to do something it to tell them only what they don't want to hear, and then leave them with a negative-negative choice. So he was probably told that his files were to go missing, he was also probably aware of what – or rather _who_ is down here trying to murder us, but he was desperate enough to sacrifice someone along the way for the chance of his own success.”

Shinra bit at his lip, narrowing his eyes. “So, there's a puppet master.” He said, glancing towards the door warily like the beast would explode through it with no warning. “Sounds a lot like someone I know.” He smiled sliding his eyes over to meet Izaya's without turning his head, and Izaya couldn't help but laugh, Shinra waving a hand dismissively. He turned back to the informant, gesturing with his hand. “But. If someone is pulling the strings in such a way, I doubt he would leave Fuzen to his own devices to find someone to go get the files. No, if this was _you_ , you would tell Fuzen that the building was to be demolished, and his files were to be moved. You would remind him of the importance they hold to him. And you would also tell Fuzen within the same breath about, 'hey, have you heard of the miracle worker, Izaya Orihara? I hear the guy can get anything you need to know for the right price'. And then you would sit back and watch him go, knowing very well that he would go straight to the informant to get his help, no questions asked.”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Izaya smiled, rolling his eyes at the very accurate portrayal. “Fuzen aside, what could this guy want from me? I did some investigating, and do you know what? I don't know any of the founders. I don't know any of the workers. I don't know anyone here. I am not connected to this place in any way, so why me? I don't know anyone here who would have a grudge.”

Shinra shrugged. “Maybe you do, but you just don't realize it?”

Izaya shook his head, frowning. “No, I don't know them. I'm sure. But anyway, if there is someone who gave Fuzen the push in my direction knowing very well that he would send me into this Hell, there's nothing I can do about it down here. We need a plan to get out, and we need one now.”

Shinra sighed, glancing up to the ceiling. “Well our Giant-sama seems to be suffering from a number of conditions, and I doubt he's going to give up his chase so soon. The peeling skin could be an extremely advanced state of eczema, or an extreme case of Argyriosis, in which case there might have actually been a toxic spill.” Shinra suddenly looked worried, glancing Izaya's way. “You saw how grey his skin was? That could be from metal toxin exposure over the course of his life, and if he was a patient here, which trust me, he's kinda acting like a mental patient, he probably developed it from living down here for so long. Meaning the second we get out of here, we both need to go see doctors just in case.”

Izaya shrugged, averting his glance.

“You're so difficult.” Shinra complained, waving his hands. “You will need help for that hand anyway, it should have stitches but I can't provide that. So what's the hassle in getting checked out for lead poisoning or silver poisoning? Anyway, that giant guy, he might be suffering from Giantism. He looks to be taller than Egor, and Egor is already pushing it. Also he might have a muscle disease as well as a facial deforming condition. There aren't enough nutrients...” Shinra suddenly trailed off, eyes widening slightly at Izaya.

“What is it?” Izaya asked, eyes narrowed and hands clenched even though he hadn't been attentively listening. He didn't exactly care _what_ the beast was suffering from, as long as it was a potential weakness.

“What if they're sending people in here for it to eat? There's no way a man of that size could maintain that much weight and muscle mass at that height for an extended period of time given that there don't seem to be any significant food sources, living down in depths such as these. There's no space for him to move, to stretch. Only space for him to roam.” He was suddenly talking very quickly, his face morphing into a serious frown, “Unless he is eating grass or wood, but even that is in short supply. He also had two rows of teeth on both the top and bottom, and none of them seemed to be missing. He could easily tear through human flesh and limbs and bones, with both his strength and his jaw mass. The pressure behind...”

“Shinra,” Izaya cut him off, stomach setting into an ominous roll because the situation was starting to sound _helpless._ Also, how had Shinra seen so much? “We need an escape plan. Please stick to relevant details?”

Shinra huffed, removing his glasses and wiping at them simply for something to do with his irritation. “Okay, well I'll deal with the physical attributes, and you can indulge me in his mental attributes. We've got this.” He smiled none too convincingly, but continued on his ramble, “Deformities and conditions aside, He's extremely healthy looking given his living arrangements. He's got high energy, high strength, high speed, as well as high intelligence. I'm pretty sure we could knock him over the head with a sledge hammer and he wouldn't even flinch. I think he might even be at a level higher than Shizuo. Shizuo is still human at least while this guy, this guy is a bit... different.”

Izaya gaped, eyes glaring. Shinra was _not_ comparing this guy to Shizu-chan. _How stupid are you? We're supposed to escape, not give up because the facts say we logically won't make it!_ “Please stick to relevant _weaknesses._ You're making it sound like we won't be able to get out of this alive.”

Shinra shrugged. “I'm only being reasonable. He can't speak very well, and his Japanese is super choppy. Is that a good enough weakness?”

Izaya groaned, standing up and brushing at his pants. “No Shinra, no. That is not an exploitable weakness. Listen. We are going to go out there, and you are going to take off that damn jacket. Put everything into the pockets of your jeans. I'm guessing he was a patient here, and from what I've been seeing, I'm assuming their 'no drugs treatment' involved prodding into peoples brains and altering their DNA to create super giantistic – or whatever you said – Argrysosised humanoids who now want to eat us alive.”

Shinra snorted. “Neither Giantistic and Argysosised are words.”

“And I am also assuming that he was pissed the second he saw your jacket because he assumed you were a doctor, and Shinra listen, humans have very fragile brains. He was obviously a human, just a mangled and ugly and perhaps part elephant looking human, but a human none the less. If they suffer enough trauma under the same conditions, they can be conditioned to be scarred for life. This goes for animals too, so it doesn't matter what they turned him into, his emotional responses can still be trained in the same way.” Izaya went on, plopping back down on the bench.

“And of course with fragile brains you are referring to yourself, because you know this from personal experience.” Shinra said, grinning.

“And he probably just assumes you're a bad guy because of the white jacket itself, so if you don't wear it, we might not induce so much of his wrath... and no. No Shinra this has nothing to do with me. I am _not_ referring to myself at all.” Izaya scoffed, sending Shinra a warning look. “I'm just trying to say that not only is he potentially a mental patient, but he is also a response conditioned, unpredictable, incredibly healthy strong, fast and intelligent mental patient with a double set of teeth, who gets a little more angry at you than me because of a simple jacket.”

Shinra snickered, watching the way Izaya's face turned red. “Shinra, we are going to go out there, you are going to take off that stupid jacket and fold it over your arm, and we are going to sneak either down or into one of the other sections so that we can find another set of stairs back up and out of here. Do you understand?” He had to take in a deep breath, arms crossing over his chest in annoyance. “And shut up.”

Shinra snorted, raising his hands in defence. “Whatever you say dearest.” He cooed, standing up and heading back over to the counter. “Shall we bring more water, just in case, dearest? We can use my jacket as a side pouch.”

“Shut up!” Izaya muttered, glancing away again, the only difference being that his head was held high this time.

Shinra snorted in return. “Didn't Fuzen send you a map? Perhaps you can pull it up and guide us through the hallways?”

Izaya mumbled something, and with a simply cock of Shinra's head, he sighed and repeated himself, just a little louder. “It's wrong.” Izaya mumbled from where he sat, finally throwing a hand to his forehead in exasperation. “The map is outdated. None of this makes sense Shinra. Can we please just get out?”

Shinra snickered, setting the water bottles onto the counter and then rearranging his weapons painfully slow. It looked like Izaya needed a minute to recover his bearings. Once everything was in the pockets of his jeans, he removed his lab jacket and neatly folded it over his arm, before sticking three water bottles into the pockets. He finally adjusted his dress shirt, unbuttoning the top two buttons just to give him some more breathing room. It was a bit chilly now that they weren't running for their lives, but he wasn't too concerned about the temperature. “So are we going to wander around aimlessly, or do you have a better, more descriptive plan?”

Izaya clicked his tongue in annoyance, standing up. “I should just leave you here.” He muttered sourly before stalking over to the door.

“Hey, don't forget that _you_ invited _me.”_ Shinra shot back, coming up behind him. “Oh! And I almost forgot!”

“ _Shhh_ _!_ ” Izaya hissed, whipping around with a murderous glare. “Can you _not_ be so loud? You understand that that thing could hear us, right?” Shinra chuckled. Izaya? Scared? _No!_

Shinra lowered his voice, “So instead of waving the flashlights around, we can just use my camcorder. It has infrared, so it's like the best night vision we can get, _and_ we wouldn't have to wave a light around to attract attention to ourselves! How cool is that!” Shinra almost yelled again, popping the screen open from the camcorder so he could turn it on. “This way, we can potentially see the giant guy before he sees us.”

Izaya sighed, popping the door open just as Shinra turned the flashlight off, shoving it into his pocket. His whole plan had been to check the hallway, but of course Shinra just up and turned off the light on him. He scoffed, blatantly displaying his annoyance with the other. “So do we know if he can see in the dark or not?” Izaya closed the door, taking a step back. He wasn't going out there without being able to see. He could hardly make out Shinra five feet away.

“Oh the dark? Okay, well he's adapted, but he's not a natural. So basically he can see, but it you don't move, you just become an obstacle he needs to avoid. But if you move, he will chase you because you're the only outline that moves. It's an adaptive trait you see in,”

“So if he sees us, we need to freeze?” Izaya forcibly took the camcorder from Shinra once it was loaded, aiming it at the door. The strap pulled at Shinra's neck, but he simply smiled like an idiot and allowed Izaya to tug him around. Izaya adjusted the screen, aiming the camcorder around. True to Shinra's word, everything in the room became visible despite the pitch black darkness.

“No,” Shinra adjusted his glasses, taking the camcorder back, “If he is near, we need to find something to hide between or beside. He will see our outlines, and that will give us away. He's not stupid, Izaya. If he sees a human figure standing in the distance, he still sees us. He just shouldn't be able to see in great detail. It's like, you know when you can just see enough in a room that you can navigate without hitting anything? He's not stupid.”

“I never said he was.”

“Regardless, that is just a hunch. We should be ready to run just in case. Also, don't forget that he chooses to be loud for the sake of being scary, and he is ridiculously thorough. He can probably smell us. Are you ready to go?” Shinra smiled brightly, turning Izaya's way like there was _nothing_ wrong with _anything_ he just said.

Izaya merely groaned in response, grabbing onto Shinra's sleeve almost timidly as he popped open the door. Before they stepped out, he quietly added, “If we get to the basement floor, there are secret hallways into the other sections, according to Fuzen's email. If there actually _are_ other sections. The basement hallways are probably still the case, even if the maps are wrong. We need to go there.”

Shinra nodded, peeking the camcorder into the hallway. The coast was clear. “And how many floors down is that?” He asked, checking the other direction. The entire hallway was clear. His heart rate was picking back up, be he didn't exactly mind. He hadn't expected the giant to find them so fast; they were right down the hall from the crater in the floor still.

The sigh from Shinra's side wasn't reassuring. At all. “We're already two floors lower than the supposed basement.” Izaya said lowly, following Shinra carefully as the other stepped from the room, _almost_ like a small child clutching a skirt. Shinra found it cute.

But that wasn't what Shinra had wanted to hear. “We'll be fine,” he mumbled back reassuringly. They could figure this out. How hard could it be?

They crept out from the room heading away from where they had come – the hole in the floor had been too large for either of them to even think about jumping over – with the darkness closing in them. It swallowed them whole, raising the hairs on their skin and leaving them almost breathless. The route back upstairs was gone, and so now, now they had improvised and hope they could get out.

No problem.

They crept down the hallway silently, Shinra using the camcorder to check around the next corner. Once again, it seemed to be clear. Izaya seemed nervous, and Shinra couldn't exactly pinpoint why. Perhaps it was because of his dominant hand being rendered useless? Ignoring the informant, Shinra crept around the corner, staying alert.

He almost smiled in victory that they were finally making progress, until an angry roar echoed down the halls, sending shivers and hair raising down both of their spines. Izaya pulled back, tugging at Shinra's sleeve. But the doctor remained rooted where he stood. The roar had rumbled down the hallway, vibrating the wooden panels and generally sounding terrifying.

But something had been different.

Shinra sighed immediately. The beastly bellow had sounded at least a floor down, meaning that their blood lusting friend was making his way back up. This registered in Shinra's brain as both good and bad, because at least they knew whereabouts he was now, but he was still coming _back_ for them.

Shinra took a step into the new hallway, scanning the floor for any signs of a door or an angry giant. Izaya almost suggested waiting him out at the stairs, letting the beast search the floor while they were running down for their lives, when something unexpected happened. They both froze back up where they stood, the need to vomit and turn tail and run suddenly strong. Izaya slapped a hand over his mouth, shaking his head. Shinra stared ahead, face draining of blood and all of his previous confidence missing.

Something answered the giant's bellow.

Something louder. Something bigger. Something angrier. Something that could send a tremor through the floors with the depth of its voice alone.  
  
With it came the sound of thunder, the walls and floor shaking from where they stood, their stomachs and will sinking with the echo from the deepest parts of their new found hell.


	5. Riddles and Clicks.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was nothing more then a little break for them, and a little revelation to the bigger picture for her.

Namie's eyebrows rose when she hit the bottom step, huffing and puffing because it had been a _long_ way down. She had to stop to catch her breath before she continued on, her jacket hanging open around her waist. Her green sweater was sticking to her skin with sweat, damp and clinging against her back, but the air around suggested that removing the jacket completely would be a bad idea. She would cool down in a moment.

Checking her phone while she caught her breath, she was surprised to see that the trip down had taken almost twenty-five full minutes. _How many fucking floors are in this building?_

At this rate, she wouldn't have been surprised if Shinra and Izaya had already returned from their voyage into the asylum’s depths. She glanced back up towards the straight staircase, wondering if maybe she should go back? _If it took twenty-five minutes to get down here, it will take almost twice as long to get back up._ She had put in the effort to get down there, so she might as well go ahead and explore.

She stood up straight, breath caught and will strong, placing one hand on her hip and shining the flashlight out towards the nearest wall. The beam reflected off of glass, and she narrowed her eyes, examining what looked like to be a sliding door built into the wall. The glass looked to be in perfect condition, a little box constructed into the wall right beside it prompting for a key card. Curious, Namie took a couple steps closer.

A little red light flickered to life above the door, prompting Namie to freeze where she stood. A gentle whirr of motion began to cut through the air, and the little box prompting for the key card lit up as if it had been on a motion sensor. “Welcome, please swipe your keycard to gain access to the Crypts.”

 _The crypts?_ Namie took a step closer, glancing down to the small touch screen. There was the image of a little ball with a face bouncing around, smiling gently.

“Please swipe your key card.”

There were no other buttons to press, no options to try and get around the system. Namie narrowed her eyes, almost pouting. This was interesting, but without a key card, how could she get past?

“Please swipe your key card.”

Growling under her breath in annoyance – she would _not_ be stopped by a glass door – she abruptly began to pat down her jacket, looking for the key card she had stashed when she fled Yagiri Pharmaceuticals. Had she put it in this jacket? Or another?

“Please swipe your key card.”

“Why do you even work?” Namie muttered, patting down all of her pockets to realize that she did not conveniently have her key card. She had doubted it would work, but there was always the slight chance that the technology was outdated or corrupted in some way, and swiping anything that it could read would pop open the door. But it seemed as though she wasn't in luck.

“I work because I am.” A well automated voice suddenly chimed through the air, the sound both pleasant and unsettling. The little smiley face began to jump around more, the nice smile turning into a closed eye one. The voice wasn't distinctly female, nor was it male. It held the air of uncertainty, not that Namie overly cared. “You also work because you are. If I was not, then you would also be not.”

Namie froze, hands still on her jacket while she stared. _An AI?_ Maybe she had a chance? _But who installs an AI to guard the door?_ “So if you work, then may I pass through?” She decided immediately that being polite and using her manners was probably the best way to go.

The little smiley face began to bounce around, a happy smile on its face. “Would you like to bypass the key card swipe with: Your name, your code name, your I.D number, or if you have A) Forgotten all of the above, or B) are trying to break in, would you like to solve the ultimate riddle?”

Narrowing her eyes, Namie crossed her arms, taking a step closer. “The ultimate riddle sounds fun.” She said, guessing that nothing else would be accepted. She was pretty good with word games, given her current occupation and current boss.

The smiley face opened its eyes, coming to a stop on the screen. “You only get one chance to guess, and then I will lock you out for five minutes. If I recognize your voice upon the next prompting, and you guess wrong again, the time limit will double. Understand?”

Namie clicked her tongue in annoyance. This was some pretty impressive technology – she was actually impressed. “I do understand.” She said, watching as the smiley squeezed its eyes shut and began to roll about.

“Good. Please say 'ready' when you wish to hear the riddle, and please say 'repeat' as many times as you need.”

Namie glanced down, before licking her slowly drying lips. “Is there a time limit?” She asked, curiously.

“There is no time limit. I will automatically shut down after five minutes of inactivity.” The smiley grinned, still rolling about. “Please say 'ready' when you wish to hear the riddle, and please say 'repeat' as many times as you need.”

Namie leaned forward, staring down at the screen. She sighed, closing her eyes and clearing out the many questions and curiosities she had. She needed to think straight and fast. “Ready.”

The smiley suddenly stopped, rolling to the middle of the screen and grinning in an almost off-putting fashion. “You may see me on a road, but you may not pass me by. I mean no harm to the lively, but redden your vision, for I am shy. Though no lock can stop me, no eyes should be looking my way. But even if you didn't see me come, as fast as one horse you can still hear me bay. What am I?”

 

\- % & ~ -

 

“... Izaya? Did you... hear that?” Shinra was frozen where he stood, eyes notably wider than they had been at any point during the entire trip. He felt himself freeze up while Izaya, oddly calm, simply tensed beside him. Shinra glanced over his shoulder even though he couldn't see the informant, but the silence that answered him spoke volumes. “Heh... Izaya, are you... alright?”

“Shinra,” Izaya hesitated when Shinra took a step forward, his fingers pulling at the doctors sleeve like something was wrong. His voice alone was what made Shinra pause, and the doctor had to swallow the lump forming in his throat. Shinra stopped, turning around with the camera so that he could see him. Izaya wasn't smiling again, but the camera wasn't detailed enough for him to read him like the open book he was. From the screen on the camcorder, Shinra couldn't tell if Izaya looked sick or not.

When Izaya didn't respond after that, Shinra took the initiative to probe him a little. “Izaya?” He asked, squinting at the camera screen to try and see past the foggy edges. He glanced up, hoping that the informant could sense that he was trying to make eye contact. “Are you okay?” How many times had he already asked that?

A moment of silence passed by them before Izaya sighed. “Yeah, I'm fine. Never mind.” He said, taking a step closer to indicate that he was ready to leave. Whatever it was that had been troubling him, it didn't pose as a problem anymore. Or so Shinra hoped.

Shinra knew better, and found the whole ordeal a little strange. Izaya was stubborn as a bull, after all. He securely grabbed Izaya's uninjured hand, their palms mostly equal in size, and gripped it reassuringly. Izaya sighed again, glancing down to their hands almost in wonder. He adjusted his grip to fit a little more naturally before taking a step forward. “Was just wondering what our odds for survival are looking like, now that we can factor in another unknown monster skulking around in the dark.”

Shinra clicked his tongue before practically dragging Izaya down the hallway. The faster they made it to the basement, the faster they could get out. “Don't think about the numbers, Izaya. Out of all the fights you've had with Shizuo, I'm pretty sure if either of us will make it out in one piece, it will be you, and even if there is only a fragment of a chance, you will make it.” He whispered almost angrily, accepting his fate as the slower runner, the first to get killed. He had seen it multiple times in those zombie movies Celty hated, as well as the alien movies. The slowest runner was normally tripped and sacrificed for the greater good.

Izaya snorted humorlessly, following Shinra without his usual grace when they turned a corner – after Shinra checked to make sure it was empty, of course. Izaya trusted that the doctor was looking out for their safety via the camcorder, but he still kept an eye trained on the screen just in case. “If I do survive, your dear Celty will kill me after beating the information out of me, and then she will come down here and murder everyone else. Right?”

Shinra hummed in agreement, a smile hitting his face at the mere mention of his most wonderful Celty. She always brought such a smile to his face and such joy to his heart – he was really the luckiest guy out of them all. Out of him, Izaya, Shizuo and Kadota, Shinra, the weird and super annoying because he literally knew everything, geeky dork, scientist-doctor, was the only one in a stable relationship, let alone engaged.

It almost made him giggle like a schoolgirl. His friend's were kind of slacking.

“Say, Izaya,” He said, slowly making his way down the only hall they hadn't explored. If there were no stairs on this side of the hole in the floor, he might actually stab someone. “You should really chill out a bit now and find yourself a girlfriend.” Shinra could only imagine what kind of face Izaya was making, and even though this was more of an Izaya thing, he kind of wanted to see it.

Izaya was probably scowling, shooting him a dirty look while shaking his head in complete disagreement.

He did scoff, however. “I don't believe the words 'chilling out' and 'Izaya Orihara' should ever be used in the same sentence.” Irritably, his hand tightened. “And how could I possibly select only one of my dear female humans to be my absolute favorite? I just love them all equally!” He said nonchalantly, trying to brush the subject off as gracefully as he could.

Shinra shook his head, swinging their arms together just to piss him off a little. “Okay, well male, female, it doesn't matter. And for the record, you have made a special exception for Shizu- oh! Stairs!” Shinra abruptly stopped, Izaya managing to maneuver at the last second and not walk into him, scoffing at both the comment and the fact that Shinra had moved in front of him so abruptly.

Izaya eyed the screen suspiciously. That had been a little too easy.

Shinra almost cheered, and Izaya almost punched him. He only managed to weakly mutter out a “Shut up,” before Shinra was dragging them closer to the side wall of the open staircase. With his back flat against the wall, Shinra poked his head around the corner and peeped down into the darkness. Izaya peeked over Shinra's shoulder, squinting at the screen on the camcorder while the doctor made a fuss.

“Do we go down, or do we wait?” Shinra asked. The stairs looked fine on the screen. The panels looked full and complete and secure, there were no holes, or anything of that sort. The railing was even still intact. There were at most twenty steps to travel down. “What if he's just waiting at the bottom for us? Tricking us with our own ideas?”

He could hear Izaya swallow at that. “You said he was smart right? We heard him, and he was close. He might be waiting, or he might already be up here...” As if the thought had just occurred to him, Izaya glanced over his shoulder even though it was a futile gesture. He couldn't even see the wall his shoulder was leaning against, let alone a giant figure looming over them in the dark. The idea of that giant loitering around without them knowing was incredibly nerve wracking.

There were just too many open possibilities, too many things that could potentially go wrong. Too many things that he didn't _know._ And still, his head was _spinning._

Shinra took in a deep breath, shaking his head at the thought and quickly making the executive decision. “Let's just keep moving?” He could practically see Izaya frown from behind him, but what were they supposed to do? If the giant was waiting at the bottom, they would deal with it. They would make it. _We can do this._ They just had to keep going, and not give in.

“Sure,” Izaya didn't sound so sure, but Shinra didn't think they had the time to hesitate or argue over it. Every second they spent debating whether or not they should go forward was a second wasted, and a second closer to having to run for their lives into the unknown once again.

At least Izaya seemed to understand this.

With their hands tightly linked together, Shinra took the first step, his shoes creaking on the wooden step dragging Izaya half down behind him. He could hear Izaya's breathes coming out in ragged pants, his hand clammy and his footing not so sure – not that Shinra blamed him, really. It was pitch black after all. When nothing moved at the bottom of the stairs, no groans or growls threatening their very lives, Shinra pressed on.

He took another step down, the wood squeaking in protest again, and a low, gentle rumble seemed to echo through the walls. Shinra froze, eyes watching the camcorder almost in a panic. Izaya's hand tightened around his, and he used a shoulder to bump into Shinra, pushing him forward. They didn't have time to wait. They needed to go and find cover _immediately._ The stairs were too open for them to linger on.

Taking the hint, Shinra took the next step, deciding that at this point, there really was no turning back. He took the stairs quickly but quietly, the squeaks and creaks beneath their shoes painfully loud against the silence of the darkness. With his heart hammering in his chest, his feet finally found the last step with a little stumble. He pulled Izaya out of the stairwell, dragging him behind him and towards the nearest door. The feeling of exposure was just a little too much for them, given how easy this staircase had finally been, and Shinra spotted a door right down the hallway.

They would stop just so they could gather their bearings, and potentially find a hiding place of some sort.

Or so that was Shinra's plan.

Izaya felt tired, and kind of wanted to rest for a bit. His head was painfully throbbing in unison with his hand, and he couldn't stop the sweat from rolling down his forehead even though the building was chilly. He could feel the cold air slapping against his skin and tearing through his jacket, yet it did nothing to stop the heat rising up in his body. Even so, he refused to take off his jacket or complain. Now wasn't the best time, after all.

He followed Shinra, the doctor setting out straight for the nearest door, when Izaya's leg suddenly itched; just a little pinch in his lower calf. It was fine, it was nothing. He flinched, simply ignoring it, but the second Shinra's hand reached out to touch the cool metal of the door handle, something undeniably heavy and alive skittered up the back of Izaya's leg. He jerked with a surprised gasp, pulling back hard enough for Shinra to miss grabbing the door handle. Multiple little taps pinched through the fabric of his jeans and something small but quick crawled around his knee until it skittered up the inside of his thigh.

He jerked back with a quiet series of whimpers when the thing continued to move up his body, ripping his hands from Shinra – who turned around completely stunned – when it skittered up and under his jacket, leaving little pin pricks in its wake. The adrenaline rush was instant. Gasping, both hands were thrown to his jacket, and he hastily tried to unzipped it as best as he could with his wrong hand. The other was brushing at his coat as if there were more of the critters, feet carrying him backwards when the skittering pin pricks suddenly raked up his chest in a flurry. It was too big to be a bug, but too small to be any kind of mammal. The only reasonable explanation horrified Izaya to even think about it.

Shaking his hand like it was contaminated and tearing at the zipper on his jacket, Izaya squeaked before finally turning Shinra's way, his voice pleading, “ _Shinraa!”_

“Izaya?” Shinra rushed over to him, trying to grab his hands to stop him from flailing so much, but Izaya shoved him back automatically, unzipping the top of his jacket and then frantically trying to pull it off. _Tap, tap_ went something sharp off the bare skin of his collarbone, and then something cold and eight-legged, the size of a handful, quietly prodded at the hem of his neck before dipping in and under his shirt.

Izaya squealed, the noise echoing down the hall while his hands were tearing open his jacket halfway and grabbing for the little creature that instantly scuttled under his arm, curling up in the heat of an armpit for half a second. Shinra was desperately trying to drag Izaya into the room by his coat, scolding him quietly but Izaya wasn't hearing any of it. All he knew was that something was crawling on him, and where there was one, there was definitely _more._ The second biggest problem was that he couldn't _see_ it, and so removing it was proving to be rather difficult. The creature ran when Izaya shoved his hand through the collar of his shirt to try and grab or even squish it, scuttling around to his back and traveling lower while making little, frantic chatter noises akin to someone tapping a tin pot.

“Izaya, stand still,” Izaya practically tripped into the room where Shinra closed the wooden door – the giant _better_ have not heard the commotion – slightly thankful that this room was not sporting a glass window where the flashlight could easily be seen. Shinra dropped the camcorder, letting it swing from the strap around his neck and hastily pulled out the flashlight, lighting up the room just as quickly.

Izaya gasped, freezing where he stood with his back almost to the wall. The little creature continued its chattering, poking at his shirt with two legs where the cloth was tucked into his jeans. It was trying to squeeze through, and the jerk of Izaya's hips conveyed enough to Shinra. He couldn't stand still. He didn't want that _thing_ going any _further._ He glanced up, borderline panic stricken, and Shinra would have laughed had the situation been a little more _normal._

Instead, the doctor had the jacket unzipped fast enough to leave Izaya bewildered, and he grabbed onto Izaya's shirt, rapidly pulling the bottom loose and watching as a rather large spider came tumbling out with a squeak. It dropped to the ground like a chunk of coal, heavy and loud, before it struggled to stand back up, its legs clicking against the wood beneath its feet. Shinra cast the flashlight over, lighting it up and squinting down at it. It wasn't any normal black spider, that was for sure. Maybe he could catch it in one of the plastic dishes he had brought?

“Shit,” Izaya had an arm over his face, his breathing labored and his voice hoarse. He was turned away so that he was facing the wall. Shinra tried to step on the small creature, assuming it to be the cause of Izaya's distress, before it could get away, but quick like a mouse it disappeared into the darkness with a little squeak.

He should have caught it. It looked _fascinating._ Shinra sighed, following the spider-like bug with his flashlight until it disappeared between the floorboards with a flurry of little legs. Who knew, maybe there were more? He giggled before turning back around, aiming the flashlight at Izaya who was now sitting down in the nearest chair.

A quick scan around the room told Shinra that they were in one of the regular rooms – there was a bed, and a dresser, and a desk, and a few chairs here and there. The room could have possibly been a patients? But then again, why would the facility need so much space? So many floors? Why?

Shinra skipped over, grabbing the wooden chair beside Izaya and pulling it to sit in front of him.

Izaya leaned back in his seat, wiping at his face and sighing deeply. “Fuck, me!” He said slowly, a wry smiling suddenly splitting on his face. Shinra almost said _gladly_ , before freezing with a look of confusion on his face at the actual thought. “That's one way to get rid of a headache.” Izaya said, gesturing towards where the spider had disappeared. He almost laughed.

“You had a headache?” Shinra asked dumbly, trying to restart his brain after his crashed from his most recent thought. “You might have a concussion, if you have headaches or nausea or weakness, or _anything_ , you better tell me.” Shinra scolded, rubbing at his face. “But right now, we're going to sit in here for a couple of minutes just in case Goliath heard you squealing like a pig over a bug.”

Izaya bristled, shooting Shinra a dirty looking. “You are just being dramatic.” He said sternly, like there was no room to argue.

“I am not.” Shinra quipped, rubbing at his face. “It was quite the interesting little bug though. Spiders don't make sounds like that.”

“It probably ate some nuclear acid, Shinra. It is just a bug.” Izaya quipped, zipping his jacket back up rather aggressively, staring down at it like it had personally offended him. “And if you ever do that again, I will disembowel you.”

Shinra glanced up, quirking an eyebrow. “Do what? What did I do that has the great Orihara all in a huff?”

“I'm not sure where you learned to do that, but it is unnatural and alarming, and you better not do it again, even if there was a bug in my shirt.” Izaya said with a smile, the threat but the humor both apparent. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, Shinra is both a doctor and a pervert. Removing people's clothes so effortlessly must be a combined perk.”

Ah. So he was talking about how quick Shinra unzipped his jacket and flipped up his shirt. Shinra chuckled, shaking his head. The light laughter soon turned almost hysterical. Izaya shot him a dirty look before shrugging, looking the other way.

“You're such a pervert.”

“I'm sorry, I didn't realize I disturbed you by removing that spider.” Shinra said, calming down a lot faster than Izaya ever could, aiming the light back in Izaya's direction. He suddenly froze, hands shooting down to his pockets.

“Please do not touch my clothes, ever again.” Izaya added, not liking the idea one bit. He never expected such a simple action to leave him so winded. He smiled none the less, before noticing the way Shinra was staring, left hand gently moving the flashlight to aim just over Izaya's left shoulder, his right hand pulling a little round plastic dish out of his pocket.

Izaya frowned, slowly glancing over his left shoulder and then flinching away like a spooked cat.

The spider, or a spider looking exactly like the first one, was hanging from a shiny web right by Izaya's head. It was twirling in the air a little, seemingly staring at the informant. Shinra leaned forward to catch it, but the spider scuttled back up its web, its _legs_ clicking as each joint moved.

It wasn't fast enough though, and Shinra had the little container around the spider, the lid coming down and snapping on top of it so fast. He was standing on his toes, snapping the lid closed before he dropped back down onto his seat and held it up, shining the light and smiling.

The little spider tapped on the dish with one leg. Shinra laughed. “I think it's the same one!” He announced, glancing over to Izaya who was scowling at the thing. The spider turned around in the dish to face him.

“Just leave it here to die, Shinra.” Izaya said, eyes still narrowed. “We need to get out, not start catching things like this is Pokemon.”

Shinra rolled his eyes. “It's just _one_ bug, Izaya. And a little rest seems to have done wonders for you. Also, we didn't know if that giant had come by. We should probably keep going. I think I'm going to name it! What kind of name should I give it? Do you think Celty would like it!? I wonder if it's poisonous?”

“Name it Shizu-chan.” Izaya sighed, giving the bug a dirty look before nodding. “Alright. We need to make this quick and get out of here. We should almost be there.” He said, standing up and brushing his jacket off. His head was feeling better – honestly, the panic that bug had given him had cleared everything up – and he almost felt the excitement he had lost somewhere along the way.

Shinra grinned, putting the little bug in his pocket where it would be safe. “Let's go, Izaya! At this rate, Namie has probably left us!”

 _Ahh, Namie. I wonder if she has left us yet?_ Izaya smirked, shaking his head. Namie? Leaving them? It was hard to tell. In one case, she was probably making more money tonight than she did in a month. In another case, she might have just chalked this up to another one of his shenanigans, and had just left. Izaya was betting that she was still out there, sour and moody and cursing his name. He laughed out loud at the thought. That secretary of his. She had quite the personality. “Let's hurry up and go see.”

Shinra skipped over to the door, hand brushing against his pocket every couple of seconds. “What's the plan this time?”

Izaya shook his head, scratching at his forehead. “I think we should just run for it.”

 

\- % & ~ -

 

Namie realized the answer while contemplating something completely different. She was thinking of thieves, from the medieval days when things like traveling down the road on a horse was more common. She had gone through categories, and decided that the subject of interest had to be a living, moving, highly intelligent, thing. That much, at least, had been clear.

“You may see me on a road, but you may not pass me by.” _Noticed thieves, or bandits, would kill people on their travels if only to loot them, or if they were recognized._

“I mean no harm to the lively, but redden your vision, for I am shy.” _A thief isn't a killer, so he doesn't mean harm to the living, but at the same time, look away because he does not wish to be seen. But why redden your vision?_

“Though no lock can stop me, no eyes should be looking my way.” _Once again, they wouldn't wish to be seen while picking locks or breaking into houses. Older aged thieves weren't just pocket pickers, they were burglars too. Maybe it's a burglar?_

“But even if you didn't see me come, as fast as one horse, you can still hear me bay.” _See them come, so now they are leaving, on a horse, and maybe you look up, hearing the horse bay, and realize you've just been looted, or maybe.... maybe...._

It had been the best idea she had come up with, the most applicable, but still not quiet solid enough to be an answer. She had asked for a repeat so many times, she couldn't even count, and every five minutes, the smiley face had asked 'Are you still there?' to which she would answer 'Yes', and have him stay on standby – just in case the power finally died. She figured the smiley would warn her, as most machines did. This was too high tech to be lacking in that department.

But now, whispering to herself in her frustrations – she hadn't bothered to check the time – as she sat with her back against the wall, pondering the riddle, she finally had the perfect answer pop in her head. It made that one odd piece suddenly fit together. “But redden your vision...” Namie trailed off, eyes narrowing and stomach knotting. It was odd. It was very odd, but it fit. All of the mythology would fit.

It was the perfect, but very, very strange answer. She stood up quickly, brushing off the back of her skirt and quickly stooped in front of the box. “I have an answer,” She said, and the screen lit up, the smiley face grinning in patience.

“What am I?” It asked again.

“ _You may see me on a road, but you may not pass me by.” He doesn't want you to see him; you'd be smarter to get out of his way and avoid him completely, but if you do..._

“ _I mean no harm to the lively, but redden your vision, for I am shy.” He does not like to be looked upon and means no harm to those who still have yet to live..._

“ _Though no lock can stop me, no eyes should be looking my way.” Locks will_ always _open for him, barricades always moved, but like the rest of the lines, he does not wish to be seen._

“ _But even if you didn't see me come, as fast as one horse, you can still hear me bay.” You may not see him, and you may be smart enough to look the other way, but even in the night, you will still hear the bay of his horse._

_You may not pass me by... without being marked... but redden your vision, for I am shy... for he carries a basin of blood, and marks his witnesses for death._

  
Namie swallowed, her mouth drying out. “I am... a Dullahan.”


	6. The Luck Well Has Run Dry.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their luck comes and goes just like fire of Izaya's personality, and the sopping mess of Shinra's love.

Just as Izaya had suggested, they ran for it – with caution of course. Bickering and mumbling aside, they silently breezed through the floor like ghosts, scouting out the dead ends and finding the stairs as if they had been following a map under the cloak of darkness. They didn't bother checking the time, didn't even bother to speak to one another until their current mission was carried out as safely and efficiently as possible. When they finally reached their destination, breathing heavily and hands to themselves, Izaya couldn't help but glance over his shoulder almost nervously, as if all of their efforts would suddenly prove futile.

"This was a bit... easy, don't you think?" Izaya said once again, the insecurity getting to him just like it had earlier. He didn't doubt their capabilities – that had nothing to do with it. He just didn't trust the luck that was coming their way. He couldn't see the bigger picture, couldn't quite set up the masterpiece of a chess board in his head to try and play to win.

This bothered him.

They were standing in the doorway to the next staircase that would take them closer to the winding paths of the basement, and hopefully eventually, to freedom. But it had been too easy, and given their current situation, easy was both a blessing and a nightmare. _We can't afford to get cocky._ They had cleared two floors without problem, and while it might just be karma finally repaying them for screwing them over so bad, Izaya didn't exactly believe in fate that way.

There was always a push and a pull, and if they were successfully getting closer to their destination, then that must have just meant that they were properly playing into the puppet masters hands.

"You look paranoid." Shinra, with a hand on his hip from running too far too fast, nodded in agreement to Izaya's previous statement eagerly. His voice alone snapped Izaya out of the mental trance he had been in, the look of slight confusion spilling onto his face for a fraction of a second.

"That really was... easy." Shinra mumbled, gathering enough strength from his fatigued body to lift up his camera and check their immediate surroundings. They hadn't heard another peep from Goliath, as Shinra had been calling him, not as much as creak that wasn't their own. As much as they should be reveling in the beast's absence, they also couldn't deny that it was also frightening. It had been more than a floor, and yet the beast was nowhere to be found, nowhere to be heard besides that nasty snarl that had sent them bolting right after the fall.

When Izaya didn't answer, still lost in thought and playing through all the possible scenarios and reasons for their current situation, Shinra waved his hands dramatically to try and catch some of Izaya's fading attention. "Let's just keep going." He said quietly, taking a few creaking steps down into the darkness, not hesitating or even waiting for Izaya to follow behind.

Scoffing, the informant quickly caught up to Shinra's heels, following him so closely he was almost stepping on him. Shinra almost smiled, loving the way Izaya was clinging to him for some unbeknownst reason. Voice still low, Izaya muttered out a, "how impatient," which did not go unheard by Shinra.

"Well, if you would like to wait around for Goliath to show his face again, please, by all means, take your sweet time." Shinra all but snapped playfully, rushing down the last few steps with his camcorder aimed and ready. He was tired of toddling, tired of overthinking their situation, and he really just wanted to go home and cuddle with Celty before he could truly die. After dropping down to the last step, Shinra waved the camcorder around aggressively, taking in as much of their surroundings as he could without wasting too much time.

Shinra suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, Izaya crashing into him lightly due to the darkness. He hissed out, hands clamping down on Shinra's shoulders as he peered around the doctor's head to glance at the screen. "What?"

"No, it's just... this floor is different." Shinra said quietly but quickly, just in case Izaya got the impression that they were once again in danger. Izaya immediately saw what he meant, though, and his own eyes narrowed at the screen in both confusion and apprehension.

Where the staircase normally opened, a door against a wall blocked their path, as well as light carpet resting beneath their feet. Closed shut and ominous looking on the screen of the camcorder, there was the slight worry gnawing in Izaya's stomach that perhaps the door was locked. He hadn't doubted for a single moment that they would come across something new and strange and possibly dangerous. Things could only go right for so long.

Izaya decided to do the honors and thereby being the bearer of bad news. Skipping around Shinra gracefully, he skipped up to the door as cheerfully as he could and wrapped long fingers around the cool metal that probably hadn't been touched in over a decade. "Do you really think this door will just open for us, no questions asked?" He inquired rather sarcastically before turning his attention on the door.

"Wait!" Shinra was really struggling with this whole 'staying quiet' business. Izaya almost snickered – at this rate, between him throwing a fit over that bug and Shinra generally being loud, he was surprised they hadn't been found and murdered yet – but was pleased to somewhat see the doctor try and cover him. To see the doctor back him up.

Shinra moved in close, falling in behind Izaya with one hand landing on Izaya's sleeve, ready to haul him back in the event that there was someone or something waiting for them behind that door. He had the camcorder poised and ready to spot anything the moment the door popped open, and more out of habit, Izaya pulled his flick blade from his pocket.

Shinra took in a quick breath. He really hoped they were finally hitting the basement section. "Okay, now."

With the quick twist of his wrist, Izaya popped the door open. Shinra stood up, camcorder swishing from side to side while Izaya stepped in, blade ready to strike. When nothing moved nor stirred, Shinra settled the camcorder back down with a light sigh. A gentle push to the informants shoulder was all he needed to get the other moving forward and into the darkness. Izaya's shoulders were still tense, but he couldn't really blame him. They were both tired and on edge.

They slipped inside quietly, Shinra taking the lead the moment they were in to lead them through the blinding darkness. They only took a few steps in, Izaya slipping past the open door behind Shinra, letting it slowly drift close behind him. They both flinched, bumping shoulders and whirling where they stood with weapons poised when the door clicked shut behind them. The sound seemed to echo, ringing through their skulls for only a moment until facts began to register. Panting lightly, Izaya rushed forward, grabbing onto the handle and giving it a sharp twist. "It's locked!"

Shinra didn't like the sound of that, but now was not the time to get caught up on the little details. Even if they couldn't get out, there was nowhere for them to go outside that door anyway, right? "We have no reason to go back," Shinra reminded, taking a step closer so that Izaya could find him in the dark. "We need to go." While it didn't sound convincing to his own ears, Izaya accepted it as a plausible alternative than lingering on the fact that they might have sealed their fate.

"Let's go then." Izaya said quietly, no hint of his usual amusement in his voice.

Shinra nodded eagerly even though Izaya couldn't see him. _He must be getting tired_. With one hand out to the wall and Izaya clutching on to the tail end of his lab jacket, Shinra crept slowly and quietly into the newest hall -

Or as Shinra soon came to discover, the newest room.

Shinra stopped maybe six feet into the room, Izaya sensing the alarm when Shinra turned to glance at him. Shinra didn't really need to say anything, because Izaya could feel the swallowing vastness of the room around them, like two men crouching in a barren field with sharp shooters all around them. It was mostly out of the slight hope that Izaya was just being paranoid that kept the informant quiet, if not fidgeting with the fur hanging from his hood. The fidgeting, however, was instantly grating on Shinra's nerves.

"There's too much space, we need to be quick." Shinra whispered, shuffling the camcorder from hand to hand and then reaching back to grab Izaya's. He pulled ringed fingers out of the tangle of fur and Izaya didn't complain, especially not when Shinra all but dragged him down the length of the room, nothing but their breathing and the gentle taps of their shoes against carpet sounding in their ears. This was okay. This was progress. As long as they kept moving forward, they could somehow overcome these obstacles.

It was another maybe ten feet when Shinra found the adjacent wall, camcorder lighting it up but nothing else within five feet of where they stood. The room was large, they both could feel it, and just finding an empty corner left Izaya's head almost spinning. He wasn't claustrophobic, though he had never been put into a situation where he could definitely find out. But now, with terrible theory after theory running rampant through his slightly muggy thoughts, he couldn't prevent the heavy breathing that suddenly accompanied him. He wasn't trapped.

They weren't trapped.

Izaya swallowed thickly from behind Shinra, only fueling the fire to Shinra's own nerves. _This is not a dead end. We are not trapped in an empty room._ Shinra was trying to calm his breathing through his nose as he crept forward, but it wasn't working out to his advantage.

A couple of feet later, he was internally cheering, not trusting their situation enough to actually shout. At the end of the camera's range, there was no one threatening or barring their path, but instead, two doors, standing to possibly let them out of this Hell. Dragging Izaya a little bit more quickly, the two briskly walked over to the doors. The second Izaya caught sight of them on the camera, his face lit up in relief, fingers dancing on Shinra's shoulders in excitement because maybe, just maybe, their good luck hadn't run dry.

Shinra didn't waste any time and grabbed the first handle, twisting it violently. He almost whined when it didn't open, his look of hope crushing in a look of despair in one fell swoop. Izaya took the luxury of testing the second door, his cocky assurance crumbling when he met the same fate.

"Maybe there's a key?" Izaya suggested quietly, twisting the handles in various ways to make sure that they were indeed locked, and that they weren't just being a couple of idiots and somehow screwing it up. Shinra watched as he threw another nervous glance over his shoulder, the rattling noise emitting from the handles echoing in the vast black surrounding them.

Shinra too couldn't help the nervousness that washed over him. He simply shrugged, rubbing at his face with both hands because this was serious hitch in any possible plan. "Let's keep looking then." He said quietly, hopeful still, throwing the emotion in the air so that Izaya could latch onto it and drag Shinra back up by the sheer force that was his stubborn will. There was no way that this was it, that they were trapped forever in a single room. Even if they were trapped, there was always hope that they could lure the best in, grab the door and run back out. There was always a plan, a way out. They were both geniuses and formidable in their own way. Nothing could stop them.

Unless Goliath was already in there.

Unsure and suddenly nervous, Shinra dragged Izaya along before he could even agree, momentarily ignoring the doors. There had to be more options? Right? That couldn't be it and all there was to it. there had to be more in the room - they were just too nervous to go and find it.

Slinking past the doors – just for the moment to see if there was anything else down along the wall – Shinra came to the next corner, nothing but the white from the wall flashing up on the screen of his camcorder. With another sigh, he trailed along and down that wall, slowly completing the square until they were standing back outside of the door that had let them in. All in all, the trip had been silent and completely uneventful.

Nothing. There was nothing along the perimeter except for those two locked doors, and the door that had originally locked them in.

Shinra took a slow, shaky inhale, glancing Izaya's way. If there was any hope – and at this point, he was really hoping beyond hope that there was something, then they would have to leave the safety of the walls and venture out into the unknown. It was doable. They were both just probably overreacting anyway. There was nothing out there, right? If there was, it would have come their way by now.

Izaya was shaking his head the second Shinra glanced his way, practically reading the doctor's thoughts. "We don't even know what's out there." He tried to reason, trying to explain why it was that he didn't want to go, before splitting a grin on his face. It was painfully fake even to Shinra's narrowed eyes, and it didn't reassure him in the least. "Listen to me, sounding so pathetically human." The comment was meant to be humorous, but the delivery was just as bad as Izaya's cover up for how he was feeling. Truth be told, he was shaking at his knees again, the excitement and chaos getting the better of him. He had been having fun, but now he wanted out. The regular thrill of danger being replaced by a cold and primal fear. All excuses aside, it came down to one fact and one fact alone: their lives were at stake.

He was a coward, and they both knew.

Shinra simply sighed, aiming the camcorder out into the darkness, once again trying to play the casual role of reason he had fallen into. "We don't really have a choice." He complained, hand tightening around Izaya's almost sternly before pulling him away from the wall. Izaya hesitated for the briefest second, hands tugging against interlocked fingers. "Just shut up and come with me. We'll be fine." Shinra said again. Izaya scoffed but followed him none the less, his protests and concerns becoming silent in the back of his throat.

They stepped out from the safety of the walls, the camera lighting up nothing but more flooring as they went. Shinra was doing mental calculations as to how big the room could possibly be based off of the perimeter, and he hoped there was no secret monster waiting for them in the middle, with jaws snapping and claws ripping. That was ridiculous. They had made enough noise and caused enough trouble to be noticed. Anything lurking in the dark would have stalked them down already. He was feeling pretty good about the odds of their safety, but then again, good feelings never truly meant facts.

Izaya behind him, was analyzing everything that had happened over the past few hours in brain splitting details. Who would do this? Had this been planned out to the very end? Were they expected to even make it this far? And that monster, was it actually a monster or was this all some staged act, and would the great and popular Hanejima suddenly show up, swooping in to save the day?

Izaya highly doubted that but it did bring a little smile to his face. With every step he took behind Shinra, creeping further away from the walls and closer to the possible end game, he couldn't help but wish it were all just a gag.

Anti-climatic and terrible for a story, but he wished this would all end like that with nothing more to it. They would both go home and relax before meeting up and laughing about the entire experience over coffee, and how they had been tricked.

Shinra waved the camcorder around, the walls suddenly disappearing as they moved forward together, the carpet swallowing them whole. This had gone on for long enough, and Shinra found himself speeding up, Izaya trailing after him like a helpless puppy, silent with eyes flickering despite the darkness. He was over relying on his hearing, Shinra could tell, and that fact alone helped soothe some of the tension building up in his shoulders.

He would never underestimate Izaya Orihara. Just like him, he was a strange human who had managed to survive in this world from a completely different standing than regular people. While they might not have Shizuo's incredible strength - or the strength of their current mutant stalker - they did still have power of their own. While someone like Shizuo would literally just fight their way out - hell, Shizuo probably would have gotten them all out by now - Izaya at least had the uncanny power of surviving the worst odds and scenarios, while Shinra had the notorious ability of somehow being present among the chaos but not actually being included or swept away by it.

Shinra had enough faith to believe that if something was nearby, Izaya would most likely react before Shinra could even catch it on his screen. Shinra also had the faith that in the event that something went horribly wrong, the two of them would still be able to survive off of each other.

But now his thoughts were just rambling.

"Shinra, wait," Izaya was pulling back on Shinra's sleeve, slowing down considerably while Shinra plowed forward.

Stunned, Shinra took a step back. He had been so lost in thought that he hadn't been paying attention.

"What is it?" He asked quietly, turning around to run the camcorder over Izaya, who was bending down towards the floor. Shinra almost told him to stop, why, he wasn't sure. But in the end, he let the informant continue.

Izaya's fingers were scrambling about in the dark, but they finally fell over a small key, picking it up gingerly from the carpet. Izaya's face lit up into a bright smile as he let the single key dangle from his fingers like he had finally done something really good. Shinra glanced at it from the camcorder screen, and his face too lit up into a smile despite the cliche set up.

Shinra made a little cheering gesture as Izaya stood up, trying his best to keep his voice low. The second Izaya was on his feet, Shinra - after tugging harshly on Izaya's coat - practically skipped over, through the dark, and towards one of the doors.

"I think it's safe to say that there's no one else in here with us." Shinra said, still quietly as he leaned up against on of the walls, fishing a flashlight out of his pocket. The other one was still safely hidden deep in a pocket within his lab coat. "I can't say I'm surprised that the key was just lying there on the floor." Shinra also admitted, eyes still squeezed shut.

"I'd say it was a bit strange," Izaya was fumbling against the door with the key, searching blindly for the handle until Shinra lit it up with the flashlight. Izaya smiled brightly in silent thanks, eyes squeezing closed into one of his genuine and adorable smiles. "Say, do you think we were supposed to live this long?" He stuck the key into the farthest door first, face slowly turning into a frown when the key wouldn't go in.

That was okay. There were two doors, after all.

"If we were sent in here as food, then no, we weren't supposed to live this long." Shinra said, watching as Izaya moved over to the other door with a dark look in his eyes. If the key didn't fit...

Shinra suddenly flashed the light into the room, waving it around just in case. The beam of light traveled further than the camcorder, but it didn't light up too much more. There still appeared to be no one else present in the room, so that at least set Shinra's mind at ease. He flashed it back, lighting up the door right beside him when Izaya scoffed, key scratching against the lock.

Izaya replaced himself now that he could see, grabbing the handle and lining up the key. "What if we weren't sent in here as food?" He asked before ever so slowly pushing the key into the lock, his mouth turned downwards at the possibility that it might just not work. "Why would they leave the key in an open room like this then? Why? Is this possibly a test, or was someone trying to thwart the authorities by leaving us little tokens of good luck hiding in the scariest places?"

Shinra rolled his eyes, all of Izaya's theories bouncing right off his skull. His thoughts were incredibly narrowed at the moment - if he allowed himself to get distracted, Izaya would get out of check, and that would be bad.

And if it that key didn't work…

There was resistance against Izaya's hand, his scowl getting scarier as the nanoseconds ticked by. But the key slid into the lock after a slight catch, fitting perfectly and clicking when it was all the way in.

Izaya grinned, twirling towards Shinra before twisting the lock dramatically, his mood completely restored, and letting the door pop open. Shinra beamed, stepping forward and slapping Izaya hard on the shoulder in delight. "It doesn't matter right now why we were sent in here, because we're going to get out." Shinra said, toeing the door open and shining his flashlight into the newest passage, a small hallway, aggressively lighting up every corner from where he stood.

The carpet continued on forward, more darkness just looming behind the beam of light, but by now, they were both getting used to the ominous and unsettling feeling that the shadows brought. Izaya would laugh about it later, about how these depths of the darkness became their ordinary in the matter of hours.

"You know, we'd make a good team for anything. Like I am pretty sure me and you could take over Ikebukuro, but of course, you're way too greedy to share, and I love Celty way too much to sacrifice all my time for it."

Izaya snickered, taking the flashlight from Shinra and flicking it off while rolling his eyes. "Just use the video thing again to guide us, oh dearest. We shouldn't draw attention to ourselves, just in case there's some nasty critters hanging around~."

Shinra stepped in first with a small chuckle, Izaya trailing in behind lightly. Everything was going so well now. Almost suspiciously well.

Izaya pulled the door closed behind them, taking the key out of the lock just in case. He tested the knob to make sure that door opened once again; Shinra almost laughed, was Izaya really showing signs of claustrophobia? The more he learned with each passing minute!

"You know, I'm starting to think that our Goliath friend was the only one to survive. Maybe he lived so long because he ate the other patients?" Shinra suggested, as they moved down the hall, trying to distract Izaya from the chaos going on in his head. He needed him to focus, and seeing how there was no presence of danger, they might as well clear out a few things while they were at it. "I mean, there's also that other noise we heard earlier, but he sounded much further away..."

"Maybe he's trapped." Izaya suggested quietly, before slowing down in caution as the words tumbled from his mouth. "Or, maybe they're territorial, and the reason we haven't seen Goliath is because we're crossing out of his territory? Maybe we are unknowingly breaching this larger and meaner guy's section? That could be one reason for the lock... because maybe this guy is big enough to eat Goliath? And Goliath isn't stupid enough to come down here on his own, but maybe the king of the food chain would gladly go eat him, so they put the lock on this side of the door to keep Goliath safe?" That thought alone made Shinra freeze.

"That's... a really out there thought. But... maybe?" Shinra suddenly glanced back when Izaya let go of his sleeve. "We need to be on guard then. I don't really see a reason why the staff would lock another monster out, given that he too can probably rip doors off hinges." Shinra said quietly, still accepting Izaya's suggestion as a real possible truth. They didn't need to be mental patients or animals to have territorial disputes – Shizuo and Izaya's relationship was proof enough of that; though that too was the territorial dispute of an animal and a mental case.

Izaya nodded, accepting the fact that they had no idea what was going on, just as Shinra turned around to head back into the darkness. Izaya quickly reached forward, grabbing onto Shinra's jacket once again before he could lose him to the darkness. "Do you think we're close?" Izaya asked quietly, trailing after Shinra for a few feet until the doctor suddenly stopped, glancing over his shoulder.

He didn't say anything, simply cocked his head like he was listening, and Izaya too quietened down. Now that he thought about it, the old musty air had changed in feeling, as well in smell. What the hell was…

There was a gentle swing of hinges behind them, and the soft purr of carpet giving way. Izaya glanced over his shoulder, eyes going wide again when everything in his body screamed run, just as Shinra brought camcorder up to check what was behind them.

A heavy hand clamped down on Izaya's shoulder, and he reacted before he could really think about it.

He lurched backwards hard enough to knock Shinra over and into the wall with a breathless pant, kicking a leg and twisting out of the grip. A soft hum of a growl echoed throughout the tiny hallway and Izaya turned tail and did what he knew best.

He fled.

"Iz-"

Izaya didn't know which way he was going, but with a hand stuck out to the wall to guide his way, he took off, other hand dragging Shinra with him. They fled down the hallway, Shinra having some common sense to try and use his camcorder as a guide but it was useless in their panic, Izaya grabbing onto him and jerking him to the left and into the nearest room. Shinra followed him easy, adrenaline adapting to the newest form of panic that he was now experiencing.

_"Go..."_

It looked like this was still Goliath's territory. Luckily for it, if he wanted back out, he was capable of ripping the door off its hinges.

But unfortunately for them, they didn't have time for anymore key hunts. If there were any more locked doors, they were going to have to get creative and really quickly.

Bursting into the room, Izaya whirled around, slamming the door closed. Shinra dropped his hand, staggering over to the wall to catch his breath. the door clicked into place for a fraction of a second before it was splintering open, and Izaya was caught in the burst of raging monster, the darkness swallowing him and blindly sucking him back. It had most likely been a hand that struck his face, sending him staggering backwards, and the next thing he knew, he was slamming hard and up against something like a grate. something dropped from his pocket, skittering across the floor while a knob pressed harshly into his spine, his good hand grabbing behind him just for fingers to sink in between metal bars.

The beast rushed him, feet slamming up closer at an alarming pace, the sound alone leaving Izaya breathless. He pulled at the grate, fingers slipping over the lever lock, not really caring if it was a vent or even a cabinet. If he could fit, he would sit. It was as simple as that.

"Izaya!" Shinra had dropped the camcorder, it swinging uselessly from his neck, while he jacket was also lying on the floor in the moment of his panic. He struggled to get the flashlight out of his pocket, flipping it on just in time to see the giant approaching Izaya in a threatening manner. "Izaya!" He waved his hands, rushing from where he stood to hopefully catch the beast's attention.

Goliath was a foot away, glancing over his shoulder with an angry roar at Shinra while Izaya spun around, grabbing the metal grate and hauling it open with a loud and ominous cringe. His hands mapped out an opening big enough for him to squeeze through and so he ducked at his waist, the entrance sitting a good three feet off the ground. Details aside, Izaya jumped in, cramming his limbs and body in just as the giant whirled back around, fist slamming out and punching in Izaya's general direction.

Goliath was surprised to find the informant missing.

The grate slammed closed, shoving Izaya's feet into his current confinements in one swing, something heavy thunking into place when the metal bars were swung tightly shut. Izaya gasped, trying to better fit his body in the small space while his good hand covered his mouth to keep his location a secret. If the beast could only see outlines in the dark, then he might never notice Izaya crammed in where he was. Not only that, but if Goliath could smell him, his current location reeked of something else.

Izaya didn't have any intention on hiding for too long. His head was rubbing against the roof of the crawl space and the floor was lumpy and uneven beneath his feet and ass, something large and awkwardly shaped sitting beside him. It could have been a mound of dirt for all he knew, it could have been a body. He decided not to think about it too much, focusing on his plan. I'll attack as soon as Shinra lures him closer to the door.

Shinra was waving the flashlight around wildly, catching the monster’s attention. "Hey, aren't we friends?" Shinra yelled, stepping back and away from the creature with slow but ready to flee steps. He wasn't sure what he was doing, this whole running and taunting thing more Izaya's job, but he would do his best.

Goliath whirled, body blocking off the flashlight from Izaya's view before he screamed in disagreement. Izaya cringed, shifting against the tight space and rubbing a shoulder painfully along the wall. He grabbed the grate and pushed before shoving, using the small space as leverage to gain him more power when he thrust his hands against the door.

The grate refused to budge.

Shinra chuckled humorlessly, stepping back and into the doorway. "Can't we be friends?" He asked in a sing song tone. He was waving the flashlight around wildly, assuming that Izaya was well hidden until the right moment to strike.

 _"No!"_ Goliath slammed a foot down, spitting in Shinra's general direction.

At least he wasn't referring to him as a doctor anymore.

Swallowing thickly, Shinra took the last step back and out of the room, trying to peek around the monster at his friend. He didn't believe the informant was trapped; he could see Izaya's fingers wrapped around the bars just waiting to spring out, and so with a look of determination Shinra took in a deep breath. "Tag! You're it!" He yelled, the monster responding in the way he had expected, the word tag deeply uttered from his throat in a threateningly playful manner. He suddenly perked like a dog ready to play fetch.

Shinra squeaked, turning on his heel and running down the hallway. How far could he get before the monster caught up? It didn't matter, because he was sure Izaya would be slashing at the giants heels in no times, just like before.

The flashlight lit up another room, his shoes going from dry to slapping on water and suddenly it was up to his ankles as he splashed through the end of the hallway, breaking out into a left or right choice. He glanced down both halls, already panting, but he couldn't see anything significant except for water, and more darkness.

So he picked left, splashing noisily through the water and he cursed it, for it was giving away his location without any question.

 _"Tag!"_ The monster was hot on his heels, just rounding the corner while Shinra was sprinting halfway down the hall, trying to muster up the rest of his speed. _Where is Izaya!?_ He turned into the nearest room, a shower room of sorts, flashlight reflecting off of the water and nothing of importance when the monster suddenly tried to grab him, knuckles pressing into Shinra's back from the missed swing.

He stumbled from the extra push, feet tripping up in the water, and the next thing he knew the flashlight was dropping and the water was coming up to meet him. His forehead struck something hard on the way, pain exploding in his temple, and he was falling down, down, down. Down into the darkness of everlasting comfort. His eyes were closing and his mind was sinking into the puddle of confusion. Thoughts swirling and alarming and not quite making sense anymore; the panic that he had been feeling dissipating and leaving him empty.

Unconscious and bleeding, Shinra fell face first into the water, glasses drifting off from his submerged nose and hair floating for a precious second, until the monster was reaching down and hauling him back by the neck of his shirt in a violent display of dominance.

The beast mumbled something excitedly before pulling Shinra up, dragging him completely out of the water and holding him up like a cat by the scruff of the neck. Upon seeing his lack of fight or reaction, he brought Shinra closer to his face for a more up close and personal inspection. Sniffing curiously, the Goliath of a man tentatively opened his mouth, sticking his tongue, wet from over salivation, to slick over Shinra's bleeding temple.

Shinra didn't flinch, out cold.

The metallic taste of blood had the beast cringing back, snapping his teeth closed with a click and he whimpered, face suddenly puckered and shoulders sagging.

He sniffed at the doctor, mangled lips pulling down in an upset frown, pulling Shinra close and throwing him over his shoulder almost gently, all of his earlier aggression melting right on the spot. _"No! No! Go! Go!"_

He screamed once again, the sound upset and agonizing, before punching the nearby wall.

 

\- % & ~ -

 

"Welcome to the crypts!"

Namie let out a sigh of relief when the door opened for her, letting her pass. The sound of air compressors rung through her ears as the glass door slipped open easily, allowing her to step into the room.

Immediately, generators began to hum to life, the lights above flickering in their power saving mode, just bright enough for her to see everything clearly, but not suddenly blinding her. She glanced around as she stepped in, her heels echoing against the fancy marble floors like she belonged there.

It was set up theater style, with a dozen raised floors filled with computers and equipment of various kinds all swirling in a huge circle. In the center, there was a pit with a dome of strong, crystal clear glass separating what must have been experiments from outside conditions. There was an examination table inside, as well as multiple machines and objects. Whatever they had been doing down there, it probably hadn't been legal.

Namie pulled out her phone, glancing at the time. It was just past midnight, and way down here she didn't seem to have service…

Scratch that. When the computers whirred to life and the last light flickered on, both the internet connection and the cellular service suddenly became available, the little symbols lighting up on her screen.

Namie smiled, placing her phone in her pocket for a moment, allowing it some time to update and receive any incoming messages that had been sent her way. _There's no way Shinra and Izaya are still hanging around in here._ She thought with a small smile, glad that she, the driver, was now making them wait in boredom like she had been.

If they were out there, that was. She wasn't worrying.

Striding across the room, the opposite wall was filled with files and books. Curiously, she crept up, glancing at the coded labels and humming in approval. She could spend so much time just browsing! Who knew what information she would come away with? Izaya would have a field day down here!

Looking at all the files, she pulled her phone back out and checked for any messages before she could become truly distracted. Upon seeing none, she frowned and loaded up her contacts list once again. If she had service now, then surely they had service too, wherever they were? Rolling her eyes, she clicked her boss's name and held the phone up to her ear. It connected, and the dial tone began to ring, patiently awaiting for Izaya to pick up.

But what she didn't know, was that a few floors above her, generators were thrumming to life from the power surge she had caused, power relocating to a specific room with a specific furnace that was currently housing one small informant. What she didn't know, was that her interference could have been helpful; if Shinra wasn't being carried lifelessly away by a beast who was already aggressively frustrated and angry with the latest duo of trespassers. She wasn't in the state to even suspect that while Izaya's phone rang from the floor just outside of the accidentally locked metal grate, Izaya himself was suddenly becoming panicked and aware that the soot and remains beneath him were growing hotter – and upon quick inspection of what laid below the mass, he discovered that the fine mesh flooring holding him up was also currently keeping him out of reach of the tiny, but quickly growing flames.

  
Namie hung up the phone when Izaya didn't answer. Shrugging, she placed it back into her pocket.


	7. Dead Men.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm pretty sure he's dead" They say, not that it really matters. She's not leaving without either of them.

His throat was becoming raw and his lungs were starting to feel heavy. Izaya Orihara did not find himself in many situations where he felt and expressed true, unfiltered _fear._ But this.

This was one of those rare situations.

“ _Fuck!_ ” His voice was drowned out by the roar and rumble of the furnace – if he had known, he _never_ would have hid there in the first place. He was cramped up, knees pushing into his chest and head still tilting at an awkward angle while he gripped the grate on the roof with his good hand, the metal hot and burning beneath his palms. His bad hand was patting at the latest crimson flicker of a flame in the fur of his jacket – he would be better off removing it, but that would take too much time and contorting to actually be worthwhile. He had a plan, a very... vague plan, but it was enough of a task to set his mind on, ignoring the fact that the little flames were now rather large; large and bright enough that he could clearly see that he was probably going to die, and that the awkward shape beside him was indeed a charred body that had suffered the same fate.

His vague plan. _What was the plan!?_ The smoke had to go somewhere, and that somewhere was most likely _up._ If he couldn't get out the same way he had come in, then he would take the risk and try and get out through the smoke vent. It was better than being burned alive. He was already imagining all of the possible roadblocks that would show up – it wouldn't be easy, and he was almost certain that he was permanently trapped – but for the sake of his life, he would at least try.

His feet, soles of shoes melting from the intense heat beneath him, were shoved against the door that had trapped him in the first place, using his folded posture as some form of leverage in trying to push the door open. He wasn't having much in terms of luck; the door wouldn't budge and neither would the panel in the ceiling of his coffin, stuck and trapped from years of ash and soot molding on top and in the crevices. At this point, he didn't care which surface gave out first – he just needed out. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

A cheery chirping noise sent a shudder straight down his chest and into his stomach, ripping a choked whimper from him. His phone, fallen to the floor just outside of the door, suddenly began to ring. _Again_ . He bit his bottom lip, eyes bleary from the _heat_ and not from the unshed tears that threatened to spill from his frustrations, from how one simple thing could threaten his life so greatly. If the phone hadn't fallen from his pocket, he could have probably answered and called for help by now. _And even if you called for help, who could make it down here fast enough to save you?_ Even if no one could make it, at least he could have talked to one of his humans one last time.

Even if it was Namie, he wouldn't complain.

It had to be Namie calling, considering that the second his phone stopped ringing, off in the distance, Shinra's phone promptly began to ring as well. Who else would call the two of them back to back, this late at night?

“Fuck!” He tried to keep his composure. He really did try. But between the burn flaring up the back of his legs and his ass – _that_ was starting to become noticeable even _through_ the thick jacket – and the phones ringing in the room what felt like every few seconds, between the door and panel that just needed to _open_ to set him free and the previous angry cry that had been followed by deafening silence, Izaya wasn't sure why keeping his composure was necessary. It was maybe necessary to escape, to think straight and get out, but then what? Judging by the loud crack in the wall, and then the sound of the giant moving down the hallway, Izaya was fearing Shinra was dead. He had no flashlight, no camcorder to guide his way. And at the rate he was going, his only hope would be to claw his way up and through the smoke vent – and potentially dying in there – instead of through the door he had originally come through. “Shinra!”

That left him with no way to see. That left him with soon to be injuries that could possibly prevent him from running. That left him without a cellphone. And, most importantly, that left him without a friend, and a skill set he might need to get out. And that was all if he didn't catch fire and burn to death first.

“ _Fuck!!!_ ” He choked on a peculiar sound in his throat, giving up on trying to pat out the flames in the fur of his jacket and simply opting to press both of his hands up and against the barred panel in the ceiling. His left hand stung when he put pressure on it, but extra damage and maybe an infection was better than dying. His fingers slid, splitting and cutting as he shoved with all of his strength while pushing with his feet, slightly raising his body from the hot mess below him. Sweat rolled down his forehead while he tried to remember how to breathe. How to think straight and wiggle his fingers to loosen whatever it was that was holding the panel so firmly in place. He fell back, gasping for breath from the effort, eyes clenched shut and hands clenching until his knuckles turned white. Nothing had budged or even shifted.

This couldn't be it. This couldn't be the end.

He kicked at the door, more flames catching on the fucking fur of his fucking jacket. It was lighting up like paper, and for once in his entire life he seriously was hating himself for the choices he had made. “Shinra!”

Breath coming out hard, he threw his head back against the wall with his eyes tightly clenched shut, a single tear escaping. He had no plan. He had no strength. His breath was falling short from the heat and the smoke.

He was going to die. With no humans near by. Never to be discovered. Alone in the cramped dark. With nothing but his own thoughts to ease or worsen his suffering before Death came to take him away.

It couldn't end like this.

 

\- % & ~ -

  


_Click! Click! Click! Click!_

Groaning, Shinra turned his head to the side when a distant clicking sound disturbed him from his sleep. Why he had been sleeping and what he had been doing previously, he honestly had no idea, but given the throbbing in his head, he couldn't exactly focus. Eyes squeezing shut, he rolled over onto his side, one hand going to his head where his pulse was throbbing angrily, pounding loudly in his skull and creaking all down the side of his face. He couldn't remember where he was, what he had been doing, or why he suddenly felt so sick. _Where's Celty?_

It hurt. It hurt really bad.

Groaning and suddenly washed over in pain, Shinra pushed himself up on his hands and knees, face still hovering over the floor when he suddenly threw up, his insides clenching and churning and spilling everything he had left inside of him. It was gross, his brain felt murky and his thoughts weren't connecting. He wasn't sure which way was left or right, up or down, or if he was even safe where he was. It was pitch black, and it felt like the room was spinning, the vertigo he felt enough to make him dry heave once more. He could have been in danger for all he knew, making too much noise while he retched, now panting loudly in the blinding darkness to try and calm the wave of nausea.

And then it all calmed down, the sickness and spinning mellowing out into a dull throb in his forehead. He flopped back over onto his side away from the mess he had made, hands going to his face while he let his head rest back.

 _Relax and think._ He had a concussion, that much was obvious. With one hand pressed to his sore face, he realized that his glasses were gone. That was _also_ a problem. Sucking in dry, dusty air, he also realized that he _wasn't_ at home, and that his video journal was hanging from his neck. He was without his jacket. His shirt and pants were dirty. And his distinctly remembered something about Izaya. _What the hell were we up to?_

Confusion settled in for half a moment until the memories started to come back, slowly but surely they trickled in, setting off his breathing rate once again. He remembered everything up to running out of the room, Goliath hot on his heels. “Izaya...” He suddenly sat up, one hand still pressed to his forehead. There was a deep gash on his temple that trailed down the side of his face until it hit his jaw, his middle finger trailing over it lightly to try and ease the pain. He only hissed, cringing away from his own touch. It was deepest in his temple, and he tried his best to remember how it had gotten there. _That_ would probably require stitches.

He swallowed dryly, rubbing at his face again before grabbing his camcorder and lifting it up. Was it broken, or was it alright still? He propped open the screen, and after a moment of loading, most of the screen lit up. There was a little crack, a little patch of blackness in the top right corner, but that would have to do. Shining the camcorder around, he noted that he was stashed behind a stack of boxes, out of sight.

Strange.

There was also a nearby rumble, alerting him that while Goliath wasn't hovering over him, ready to devour him in one go, the beast was nearby, doing whatever it was that beasts do. Deciding that he probably didn't have time to debate as to _why_ he hadn't been eaten, Shinra carefully and painfully forced himself up and onto his feet, one hand against the wall to assist his teetering weight.

 _Click! Click! Click!_ Practically jumping from his skin, Shinra glanced down and around, shining the camcorder to try and spot at least something. His vision wasn't the best, but at the same time, it wasn't the worst. He could get by with this. It would be okay. _Click! Click!_ It took him a couple of seconds to realize that the sound was coming from his pocket. Confused, he stuck his hand in carefully, fingers ghosting over the smooth surface of a little case. _Oh right! That spider._ Gingerly, he pulled the little container out from his pocket, shining the camcorder over it and squinting at the screen to try and make out what it was showing him. _Click! Click!_ The little spider was half submerged in water, clicking at the plastic as if it were in a panic. It was holding itself up by the side of the case so that its feet weren't touching the bottom, head sitting just over the line of water.

The horror and absurdity of the situation passed Shinra by for a moment, and he quickly set to work, cracking the little dish open so that the water quickly trailed out. The little spider cringed, pulling all of its legs close together while it shook off its body, before it rocketed forward, crawling up Shinra's sleeve.

“Whoah, wait, wait!” Shinra didn't panic half as hard as Izaya had, simply flinching and taking a step back so that his back was pressed up against the wall. The little spider crawled up his entire sleeve before perching on his shoulder, tapping the fabric of his shirt twice. He glanced over nervously before shaking his head. “It's... it's fine.” He chuckled, shaking his head. He was _talking_ to a _spider._ An apparently intelligent spider, who may have been bred with human brain cells for all he knew, doing things and performing tasks at an understanding far beyond that of an insect.

 _No, don't get distracted._ He could experiment and run tests on the little critter when he got out. Shaking his head and rubbing a hand over his face, he quickly decided on his general course of action. He needed to scout out the room to make sure that he could sneak away. And then, he _should probably_ go back for Izaya. He wasn't sure if the informant had been trapped or just cowardly, but regardless, he couldn't have gotten too far. They had been locked into the lower section of the basement, so unless Shinra was another six floors under, there couldn't be too much area to cover.

_He also only has a flashlight, so if anything, he'll be found in no time._

But first of all, Shinra didn't even know where he was. It appeared to be a small room with him stashed behind several piles of boxes. Perhaps the beast was saving him for later? Or had there been a territorial dispute, like they had assumed earlier? Second of all, a quick scan of his body told him that no extra injuries had been suffered after his terrible fall – the fall which would probably result in a nasty scar that he would unfortunately have to show off for the rest of his life. So he hadn't been torn limb from limb. Which was good. But not fitting the behavioral assumptions him and Izaya had previously made.

If Goliath had spent so much time savagely hunting them down, then why was he still in one piece? Shinra had a few theories, but unfortunately lacked anyone to discuss them with.

Shinra shook his head again, pushing himself away from the wall and gauging how well he could stand on his feet. The longer he kept his eyes closed, the better he felt about the whole ordeal. It didn't feel like he was swaying, and it didn't feel like he was about to throw up again. He could make it, but where was he going to go?

 _I should retrace my steps, try and find out where I left Izaya, or even where he ran off to. I also dropped my jacket, and there's water in there._ He licked his dry lips at the simple thought. Yes, water would definitely be nice.

Wincing, Shinra peeked around the stack of boxes timidly. _Also, where did that giant go?_

The room was very small, multiple boxes stacked up everywhere, and from what Shinra could see, there was a staircase going downwards, and a staircase going upwards, on the same wall. Slipping himself from in between the boxes, Shinra scampered across the room to the thin stretch of wall separating the staircases, peering into the stairwell that went downwards. There was a soft growl coming from somewhere down below, the sound of nails raking along metal telling him that Goliath was probably trying to remove another large, locked door. From what he could see on his camcorder, there was an exit light flickering, the giant shape of a human standing right underneath it.

Shinra whirled around so that his back was pressed to the wall. Well. He was going back up.

He leaned over to his left – he was missing a shoe, so he kicked the other one off in the process – before peeping into the stairwell that would take him back up. His heart was hammering in his chest, and he had to admit that this adventure without Izaya was a whole lot more nerve wracking. But on the plus side, at least he knew that Izaya had to be _somewhere_ above him.

The stair well was empty, and nothing moved nor made a sound. So he carefully stuck a foot out and crept up the carpeted steps as quietly as he could – which had been made easier in his socks – with the camcorder posed to make sure that he was indeed alone and not about to be attacked again. _That was kind of stupid, running from him like that just to lead him away! Seriously, where was Izaya?_ He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he really hoped that nothing too horrible had happened during his state of unconsciousness.

The top of the stairs were wet. Shinra's socks were instantly soaked, and when he reached the actual floor, he sighed in annoyance as memories came flooding back. This end of the hallway was just wet, but from the looks of it, the water was just getting deeper the further down the hall he gazed.

He slipped out from the doorway, carefully padding down the hall where the water began to rise until he reached an adjacent hallway. Shining the camcorder down, he noted that he was probably on the floor he and Izaya had gotten separated on. _Goliath didn't take me very far. I couldn't have been unconscious for very long._ Somewhat unsettled by the newfound information, he quickly decided on his priorities and continued on straight. He couldn't remember which way he had run, or even which way he had come from, so just in case he ended up lost, straight always seemed like the best answer. The water level rose to meet his ankles, and he splashed down the hall until he came to the only open door, shuddering every time he stepped. Goliath was too close for comfort, and had this bad habit of sneaking up on them. Any noise he made was not welcome. He stopped in the doorway, noticing that there was a two inch drop between the hallway and the tiled flooring in the room. Glancing to his side, the hallway came to a dead end, a single light flickering at the end of the hall. _This floor was very small... or we found the wrong staircase..._

He was back in the shower-like room, water clinging at his pants and freezing his toes. Memories suddenly flooded back in a blurry fashion, reminding him of what generally happened. _No wonder I fell._ There was a table right by the entrance, a multitude of things sitting on it innocently. The opposite wall was housing a row of shower heads, but the room didn't particularly interest him. What interested him more was that he could now retrieve a lost possession of his. He scanned the water's surface with the camcorder carefully, glasses now being his first priority. He was squinting at the screen, looking for something thin and black amongst the grey and white patches on the screen.

He sighed. This would probably take longer than he had anticipated. _Maybe I should just go and get Izaya?_

The spider on his shoulder suddenly shifted, its legs _clicking_ in an eerie sort of fashion by his ear. Without warning, the little creature suddenly jumped, nothing but a fast trailing web keeping it from plunging down into the water. Shinra watched frozen, just as the little eight-legged creature landed on something sticking out from beneath the nearby table. It clicked its little legs as if it were waving at him, tapping onto the plastic arm it had landed on.

“Would you look at that.” The little black smudge suddenly looked more like something familiar and less like a shadow. Shinra stooped down, plucking his glasses up from the water and giving them a once over. The spider clicked it's legs in rapid succession as if it were applauding itself. “And would you look at that.” His voice suddenly became downcast as he glanced over the damage done to his right lens. There was a nasty crack splitting across it, but at the end of the day, partial vision was better than no vision.

Shaking his head, he stood back up. The spider jumped from the arm of his glasses and scuttled up his sleeve quickly as he rose, Shinra wiping his glasses off on the bottom of his shirt. “Let's go find that friend of mine.” Shinra sighed, a little bummed out that his glasses had cracked. It could have been worse though, right?

He sat them back on his face while he left the room, feet gently splashing through the little puddles of water. The camcorder suddenly looked ten times better than he had originally thought, the little black patch nothing more than the size of a fingernail. Unlike when he had been running from Goliath, there seemed to be an overhead light flickering on in the hallway, like the bulb was almost dead and flickering out until it died. There was also a humming noise in the air that hadn't been present before.

Strange. It almost sounded like the power was on.

Still taking his time – if he moved any faster, his head was bound to swim and start spinning once again – he made his way back down towards the room that he had last seen Izaya in. He remembered the way he had run, and realized that if he had gone right back then, when he made the decision, he would have fallen down the stairs in his haste. _So I either fell and knocked myself unconscious, or I fell and possibly broke a leg or two._ But that aside, __what were the chances that Izaya was still there? That he was trapped? Shinra hadn't gotten a good look, no thanks to the Goliath of a man blocking his path, but it hadn't look like Izaya had gotten himself stuck. But with Izaya, you never really knew.

Regardless, Shinra tried his best to hurry down the hall. If Izaya was still stuck, he was probably cursing loud enough to attract the attention of everyone and everything in the building. The fact that Shinra _couldn't_ hear him meant that he was probably somewhere else. _But where could he go? Unless he's hiding on this floor? Or maybe he found a key and got the other door open? Or did Goliath..._ When he stepped through the door-less entrance, though, his train of thought abruptly came to an end.

The room was empty, aside from janitorial stuff, bookshelves, and his jacket lying on the ground. But the room was brightly lit from the hot fire glowing behind the grate of a furnace. _There's no way..._ “Shit!” He rushed over to the side panel that caught his attention, hastily slamming his fingers into buttons until the furnace suddenly powered off. His heart was suddenly throbbing in his chest, the idea that _maybe_ just _maybe_ Izaya didn't get out crossing his mind. When the flames started to die down, the room too also started to go dim. Shinra rushed over to his fallen jacket, dropping to his knees and shakily ripping out the spare flashlight. He flicked it on and rushed back over, grabbing onto the lever lock that held the door firmly in place and -with more force than he thought it would require – slowly hauled it open with a heavy creak. A metal panel fell out of the furnace when the door swung open, and Shinra kicked it away, only half noticing it hit Izaya's cellphone on the floor. _If he had gotten out, he would have grabbed his phone... Unless he didn't see it... but he knew I dropped my jacket... he would have taken the flashlight... and he would have seen the phone..._

He waved the flashlight around, the glowing flames dying down to singe the remaining hot coals. There was nothing but ash and soot, and Shinra's throat clogged up when the light danced over the charred remains of what was once a human. It was sitting in the back corner, curled up into itself. It was hard to determine anything. Everything was burned and black and covered in soot. Shinra didn't know how long he had been unconscious, he didn't know if Izaya had even been _in_ there. There was no way to know for sure, but somewhere in the back of his mind he figured. If Izaya had been in there – and a quick glance around the room showed nothing else with bars – then there was _no way_ he would have been able to open that door. Shinra could hardly get it open, and he was on the outside.

Shinra's throat closed up and he took a step back. The flashlight lowered in his hands, and he stared into the depths of the belly that had swallowed Izaya up. The throb in his forehead suddenly came back with a vengeance, and he once again felt the need to throw up. The spider on his shoulder clicked its little legs, but Shinra turned away, hand over his mouth. He stooped down, grabbing Izaya's cellphone and shoving it into one of his pockets before mechanically moving over to reclaim his fallen jacket, the need for water forgotten. He picked that up too, mind blank and thoughts empty. He didn't even know. He wasn't even sure. He could only hope that he was wrong, but even then, he knew when to just accept the facts. What was the likelihood that there had been another body in there?

He left the room silently.

Down on the floor below him, Goliath suddenly screamed, the sound of metal ripped out of wood, taking chunks with it could be heard, and then the impact of a rather huge door meeting an unfortunate wall.

So the beast had finally cleared the path. Shinra didn't exactly feel elated by this, while he also didn't feel hindered. He suddenly felt indifferent to the whole ordeal. But he would strive to make it out alive, even if he was one person less.

He didn't really think as he mechanically found himself in the hallway. Didn't really consider much more than just picking himself up and carrying himself to safety. There wasn't much of anything else he could do, right? If Izaya was gone, then Izaya was gone. There was nothing he could do about it. He could take a look around the floor, calling Izaya's name until he could slip past Goliath, but that was the extent of it. There was nothing he could do.

Nothing he could do...

 

\- % & ~ -

 

The trip was done quietly and without incident.

Goliath had back tracked to get Shinra, screeching in frustration that he had been missing, and had promptly returned up the stairs in order to find him.

Shinra, who had been bypassed, hiding in a different corner behind a stack of boxes, had taken the opportunity to slip back downstairs. He had skulked around the upstairs floor for a bit. A quick trip into the huge empty room had told him that both doors were still locked. He didn't have much in the sense of time, so he had run, calling Izaya's name softly before giving up and returning to the tiny room. Goliath had checked the hiding spot where he had originally ditched Shinra, and in a fit of anger, had run back upstairs screaming.

Shinra's mind had remained unnaturally blank as he slipped down the next stair case, not even admiring Goliath's handy work. The door was the size of a bank vault's, and it had been ripped completely out of the way – taking some of the wall with it.

The next floor was terrifyingly dark, and several degrees colder, but the air that nipped past Shinra's shirt didn't phase him. It looked like a basement, the concrete flooring beneath his socks freezing, and there were wooden structures set up all around the place where walls should have been built. Here were boxes and _things_ and just general junk stacked up all over the place, like a storage room. Shinra found himself tripping and stumbling on more occasions than just walking.

He was at the next set of stairs when a cellphone suddenly began to ring in his pocket – Izaya's. It startled him, lurching his heart into his throat and he whirled around with the camcorder, suddenly worried about Goliath's location. Quickly, because he was internally panicking at the noise, Shinra answered the phone quietly while ducking into the nearby corner. He slid down the wall with the phone pressed to his ear, knees in his chest. “Hello?”

“Hello?” Namie. It was Namie. She sounded a little confused to hear Shinra on the other end of the line, but it didn't matter.

Sighing out in relief, Shinra almost cried. Why hadn't he checked the phones!? “Namie? Namie, thank -”

“Where the fuck are you guys.” Namie snapped, voice hissing on the other end of the line. Her voice seemed to echo, and he could hear here shifting about.

Shinra didn't even flinch, his stupid smile lighting up his face. He dropped his head into a hand, rubbing at his temple where the throbbing was still threatening to send him to his knees. “Namie, where are you? There's been a change of plans...”

“I can see that.” She huffed, before sighing heavily. “Why are you answering Izaya's phone? The two of you need to get out now, and I'm not leaving this basement until you both agree to come out. You understand how _long_ you've been in there, right? I've been trying to call for a couple of hours since I got the power running, but there was no answer.”

Shinra swallowed thickly, raising an eyebrow. _A couple of hours?_ The phones had never rung, last he remembered. “Um,” _Izaya isn't coming with us._ “What do you mean, basement?” _How long was I unconscious? And what was Goliath doing for a_ couple _of hours???_ his head was spinning again, question after question fluttering through his skull. _If Izaya's been in there since the power came on..._

“I found a door that took me into the basement. I am here now. So you two are going to get your asses out of here, because I am ready to leave.” Namie said in her authoritative tone, not giving Shinra a chance to argue.

Shinra sighed, taking in a deep breath. “Namie...” she hummed to acknowledge him and he wiped at his face, continuing on. He needed to get the important details out. “Listen. It's not safe in here you need to go back the way you came. How did you get in?”

“There was a door in the courtyard with a staircase that brought me right down here.” Namie said, her shoes clacking in the background. They echoed, and Shinra strained his ears to try and hear her on the floor, hoping she was near by so he could leave this hell hole. “I have found some interesting files-”

“Namie, you need to get out,” Shinra urged, glancing around quickly. Did something just creak? He lowered his voice. “And if the light is on, you need to either turn it off, or leave it on for me to get out by. You need to go. Go out, go back to the car and just wait for me, okay? And if I'm not out, or not answering the phones, and you see some huge naked guy, just drive away, okay?”

“And Izaya?” Namie asked, voice still sounding bored and not aware of the trouble that the two of them were in. she didn't even question half of what Shinra had said.

Shinra rubbed at his forehead, mind spinning. He felt sick again, and that could greatly hinder his progress. “He's... not... here. Anymore.” He felt like he was about to throw up. He slapped the back of his hand over his mouth just to make sure.

Namie was silent for a moment. “What the fuck does that mean?” She snapped, sounding a little more irritated then she had before. “What the fuck is going on in here?”

Shinra rubbed at his face, groaning. “Namie. Just get out. There's this guy in here and he will crush you, he tried to kill us, listen I can't explain, we were chased down here, Izaya isn't coming, he... You... We need to... There's... I'm _sorry. Just leave!_ ”

And with that, he promptly hung up. Breathing heavy, he stood back up and continued his way through the massive maze, his camcorder suddenly picking up a small stream of light. He rubbed at his face, not quite sure what was going on anymore or what he was even thinking. The need to just sit down and sleep was too great.

_I'm guessing that's where Namie is hiding._

 

\- % & ~ -

 

Namie scoffed, glancing at her cellphone almost murderously. _Did Shinra just hang up on me!?_ Rolling her eyes, she angrily tapped out a text message, generally stating that no, she was not leaving the room until either Shinra or Izaya showed up, and no, she was not driving away without _both of them_ even if some naked man came running at her. She wasn't sure what Shinra's deal was, but she wasn't leaving, and that was final.

Plus, she had read some pretty _interesting_ things in these documents.

  
Pulling a new file from the giant bookshelf, she turned around to stalk back over to the desk she had claimed, when something in the doorway caught her eye. She froze right where she stood at the bottom step, eyes shooting up towards the door that lead into the facility. Her heart suddenly froze in her chest. There was a black smudge peeking into the room, and it most certainly did not look human.


	8. Almost Out.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The exit was within sight, but now it's so far away.

She practically jumped out of her skin in surprise; not fear yet, for it hadn't moved to attack. Lurching back with her heart in her throat, she froze where she stood, eyes locking on the creature standing in the doorway.  _ Maybe there was merit to what Shinra was saying after all. Is it possible that there are still people living down here? _ A little smudge of shadows was leaning around the door frame, peeking timidly into the room. It was furry, blending into the black shadows right behind it with nothing more that two... rusty... eyes...

Familiarity instantly washed over Namie, and her look of surprise suddenly turned into one of both concern and confusion. She slapped the file she had been holding down onto the nearest table, watching as the smudge flinched. Shoes clacking, she all but jogged up the steps, eyes never leaving the little smudge of a human standing in the doorway.

The closer she got, the more alarmed she felt. “Izaya.” She said almost commandingly as she quickly skipped up the last few steps, like he was going to flee, closing the distance between them. He hadn't moved an inch, didn't even flinch back when she came near, wide red eyes locked on her as she approached. “Izaya?”

Namie had no qualms against moving right into his space, and he had no intention on letting it bother him. He was rigid, face frozen in the fallen state of an old smirk, and she briefly wondered what he was playing at. She reached out, hand grabbing his chin and jerking him forward, his eyes fluttering shut at the contact with a small, strained smile.

It was upon this inspection that her alarm turned into worry.

He was covered head to toe in black soot. It smudged down his chin where she held him, caking her fingertips the moment she had touched him. His hair was matted and thick with it, no signs of the soft and shiny thin strands that he usually adorned. The fur of his jacket was caked – there was an entire handful of fabric missing from right over his left thigh, knees torn out and his shoes were gone by now too. His clothes were torn, a nice rip in his jeans exposing nasty gashes. But most concerning of all was his breathing. He was trying to hide it, that much was apparent in his posture and face, but something this bad wasn't easily hidden. She could see when he inhaled all the muscles in his neck as well as the hollow in his collarbone, the sharp line of his jaw. His shoulders were quickly bouncing up and down, the strain of choking on his own lungs apparent with how rapidly he was trying to catch his breath through his nose.

He was panicking.

“ Izaya come sit.” Disregarding the black ash that had already coated her fingers, she grabbed onto a handful of his sleeve, all but dragging him into the room.  _ No wonder he had just stood there. _ He came easily, stumbling after her down the stairs and away from the door until she stopped by her work space, pushing him into the rolling chair she had claimed for the past few hours. She briefly considered going back up to close the door, but the matter at hand seemed a little more important. “Sit.”

He fell into the chair, an awkward quirk of a smile spreading on his face as he spun gently. She grabbed the nearest chair and scooted closer to him, eyes narrowed as she simply took a second to observe him. Eyes wide. Hands were twitching restlessly, moving ever so slightly this way and that. His shoulders were rapidly heaving and hollowing out his throat with every breath. And the entire time, he still managed a face of strained normalcy.  _ Why is he panicking? _

“ Hold your breath.” Her hands were already dirty, so she didn't even hesitate to slip her fingers through his, raising his hands and placing them on his head. She waited until his rapidly shifting shoulders settled down for a couple of seconds, the informant doing exactly as he was told for once, before she continued on. “Sigh.”

He heaved out a heavy breath, practically keeling over and the shaking came right after it when he gasped, the thinly threaded act he had kept together crashing down with that single breath. She held his hands firm, keeping him somewhat upright while scooting in closer. His breaths were much nosier now, rapid and wheezing, eyes squeezing shut and eyebrows creasing because he was getting dizzy. “ _ Gently _ you idiot, try again. Slowly.”

Eyes closing, he tried again. Back straightening, he held his breath for a couple of seconds before ever so slowly trying to exhale through his mouth. He didn't choke this time around, the breath gentle but still a little too heavy to be considered normal.

“ Breathe in  _ slowly _ through your nose,  _ slowly. _ ” Namie instructed, fingers slipping in through his matted hair, nails accidentally catching and ripping at strands. He cringed, but the pain aided as a distraction she never intended.

He inhaled sharp enough that Namie cringed, pads of fingers adding just a little pit of pressure to his skull. His eyes cracked open, and he glanced away like he was about to die, pants loud and uncontrolled. His hands shifted from his head down to his chest, wrapping around his stomach like he was coming undone. “No good, try again. You're not falling apart, I've got you. Listen, we are free to leave whenever we Shinra gets here. We can just get up and walk out, but you'll never make the stairs like this.” She said, mind trying to think of possible reasons as to  _ what _ had put him in this panicking state. There wasn't too much that upset the great Izaya Orihara, and she wasn't exactly sure how one would go about  _ comforting _ him. And all the while, the door above suddenly hovered in the back of her thoughts like a disaster waiting to happen. “And Shinra called me, he's on his way. We just have to wait a bit, and then we can get out of here. Don't forget to exhale gently, you idiot.”

He was catching his breath, hands dropping from his chest to rest tiredly in his lap with his head drooped, nothing more than small pants. She pulled him forward towards her shoulder just as his breathing evened out, glancing up towards the doorway suspiciously. “That was quite a sight.” She teased, a smile quirking at her lips. Izaya chuckled breathlessly, but didn't try to move yet. “You almost looked like a little person there for a moment.”

“ Shut up.” He said, weakly but albeit stubbornly. Namie didn't shove him off, and he didn't move for a couple of seconds, his breathing evening out so nicely that Namie almost thought he had fallen asleep.

It was about a minute later when he suddenly jerked up, a genuine smile plastered on his face. He rubbed at his face, smudging soot and ash all over his cheeks. Namie sighed, tempted to just wipe his face off with her sleeve, but holding back. “Namie~ I want a hug now too.” He said lightly, tired eyes playfully begging. He looked worn out, and it was honestly a new experience for Namie in general.

Namie narrowed her eyes, searching his face and finding the usual signs of him just generally being an annoying ass. He was just trying to cover his tracks and get something to tease her about now. “No,” She said coldly.

He pouted, lips puckering while he leaned back in the chair, back against her jacket, and spinning once. “So mean. And yet you were nice enough to try and help me out there, how sweet. Good to know that Namie will come to my rescue whenever I need it most!” He laughed, eyes still closed while he spun and only the slight trace that anything had been wrong on his face.

“ You're really ugly sometimes, you know that?” Namie said, stopping Izaya from spinning. Her face was stern, and his expression froze in its puckered state. “Instead of playing it off like you weren't terrified out of your mind, how about you either shut up or just own up to it? Stop with the little word play and acts to try and make it seem like you had everything under control. Because you don't. Now I don't know what happened out there, but I honestly don't want any part in it. So let's go get Shinra, and then we can go.”

Izaya frowned, teetering away in the chair, eyes quickly leaving Namie's. “Ugly.” He repeated that one word, the frown on his face calculating. He opened his mouth to argue, to start another banter, to tease, to do  _ whatever _ it was that Izaya was going to do, but Namie interrupted him, grabbing the chair and spinning it back to face her.

“ What happened to your hands?” She reached forward, grabbing his hands and pulling them into the air to examine them. Izaya hissed, pulling back his left before stubbornly clamping his mouth shut. He held his injured hand back out, almost in apology, watching attentively when Namie gently touched it once again.

“ Shit happened.” He said quietly, clearly avoiding the subject.

Namie touched the bandage, black with soot and ash except for a few fresher tears that showed white. Using both hands, she gently turned it palm up, eyeing the strange manner of both the wrapping and clipping. That was Shinra's job, no doubt about that. Secure in the skilled way of a self taught doctor. She lightly ran her hand over it, contemplating whether or not she should change it, when she noticed his finger tips. “Looks like you had a rough time.” She said quietly, letting go and picking up his right hand.

They both hissed – Izaya in actual pain, Namie only imagining – when she dabbed at it with her sleeve, trying to wipe away some of the black so that she could see his skin better. “Are those burns?” She asked in open question, letting Izaya choose to fill her in or not. She suddenly understood where all the tears had come in the bandage. His hands were practically torn apart, the pads of his fingers slit open and burned, deep gashes and cuts scraping his palms. “What the fuck were you doing?”

Izaya stubbornly remained silent at that, eyes striking straight through her soul. His jawline tensed, posture rigid while he for once had nothing to say or even quip with.

Namie frowned, hand unconsciously tightening around his. “Is that why you were panicking?” She didn't even consider the impact of her words. Didn't consider that maybe he had endured some sort of trauma. This was Izaya Orihara, and he would save face for as long as he could, most of it genuine and not just an act, she had come to realize. A little straightforward interrogating would be fine.

He froze, the action telling her that  _ yes, he was panicking and ended up clawing out his hands. _ “Why didn't Shinra help you?” She gently rubbed away some more of the grime, thumb skittering over a nasty red welt. “How the fuck did you burn your hands?” Now that she thought about it, there was fur missing from his jacket, and that huge patch down by his leg...

Glancing down, she noticed that his knees were equally torn apart beneath the dirt, and she shook her head. “The fuck were you guys doing and why is Shinra not with you?”

Izaya chuckled, finally pulling his hand away to indicate that he was done with the one sided interrogation. He liked to be the one observing and picking apart, not being the one observed and shattered. “He...” How could he even explain that? He'd have to start at the beginning, and explain  _ everything. _ “When did Shinra call you?” Izaya asked suddenly.

“ He hung up on me right before I spotted you in the door.” She admitted, tilting her head. “He said he'll be down here shortly... Why are you smiling like an idiot now?”

Izaya looked away, a giddy smile plastered over his face. “It's nothing. He's not dead yet, right?” He asked, baring teeth back at her when Namie shook her head in confirmation. “That's good then. We'll wait for him, then?”

Namie was a little curious about his sudden good mood, but those weren't the questions she felt like asking. She was used to his mood swings, and the past couple of minutes were nothing but normal. When dealing with  _ him _ anyway. “So... what happened in here? You two have been in here for  _ several _ hours now. Shinra sounded just a ragged as you look on the phone... so like I asked before. What the fuck happened?”

Izaya chuckled, closing his eyes for a moment and placing his good hand on his temple like he had a headache. “Namie, Namie. You swear way too-”

A shrill, angry  _ screech _ interrupted him, echoing against the walls and immediately demanding attention. Namie glanced up to the door, standing up at once while her pulse suddenly skyrocketed.  _ What the hell was that!? _

Izaya was already on his feet, eyes wide again and mouth firmly clenched, while grabbing Namie's hands and carelessly jerking her behind him. She almost fell, her ankle almost twisting when she landed awkwardly on her heel, but she managed to keep her balance. They were rushing at the bottom of the staircase, loud  _ clack _ ing and _ clicks _ following them wherever Namie went while another angry roar echoed throughout the basement – it sounded a lot  _ closer _ than it had been, angrier than earlier and down right annoyed. Izaya suddenly whirled, glaring down at Namie's heels. “Take those  _ off, _ ” he snapped, glancing back up to the door in a hurried fashion.

“ There's no time for that,” Namie said almost breathlessly. “I can run just fine in them!” She said, assuming that they would be bolting away from the source of Izaya's distress. She hadn't bothered with her regular pumps today, but instead had felt like trying out her newer, fancier, pair with several more straps. More straps meant more buckles, and more buckles meant more time wasted.

Such was the life of a classy woman.

Running wasn't the point. The point was that they were loud and would give away their location  _ instantly.  _ Izaya shot her an unbelievable look before the flash of decision crossed his eyes. “Hold on then,” he snapped. Namie tried to question him, but in the next second he had an arm slung around her back and the other under her knees.

“ _ Friends!” _ The snap of an angry voice drowned out Namie's squeak when Izaya scooped her up with effort, her arms instantly wrapping around his neck in fear of being dropped. He  _ teetered _ , possibly questioning his own sanity and actions before moving.

Izaya darted across the room, hiding them in beside a bookshelf just before a door –  _ not _ the door that belonged to the room, mind you – went crashing through the wall, splintering and shattering and exploding into the room. Izaya's back was pressed against the bookshelf, Namie tucked safely in front of him. Namie's feet hit the floor with her hands over her mouth, eyes wide when the remnants of a door came skidding noisily down the staircase. It jumped when it hit the bottom, flying into the air and crashing somewhere on the other side of the room. She didn't dare peek around the bookshelf to see what was in the doorway this time, simply pressing up to the informant, eyes wide in confusion and silent panic.

She glanced up to Izaya, who was breathing hard, sweat streaking through the grime on his face while he went through all the possibilities. He suddenly glanced around, eyes settling one something behind Namie. His face was conveying panic, and Namie had no words to describe how that made her feel.

Were they going to die?  _ What did we get ourselves into!? _

A fact suddenly popped into her mind. “The door,” Namie whispered, pointing across the room to the glass door she had come in by. “The glass door, there's a staircase up to the courtyard -”

Izaya placed a hand over her mouth, body suddenly going rigid. She shut up, eyes wide and darting around the room when she suddenly realized that there was no more  _ screaming,  _ and no more _ throwing. _ There was nothing. No noise. No more growling. No more angrily flung objects. Nothing.  _ Did it leave? _ She almost sighed in relief, but Izaya's tension told her that there was probably more to the story than she realized. The longer the silence stretched out, the faster Izaya's heart seemed to beat beneath her hand.  _ Is it coming? There's so much light, it will see us instantly... _

He suddenly placed a hand over his own mouth, glancing over his shoulder to the corner of the bookshelf. He swallowed thickly before casting his gaze back over Namie's shoulder. She turned slightly, glancing to see what Izaya could possibly be looking at during a time like this when she noticed a door. She glanced back, and Izaya was peeking around the corner of the bookshelf, breathing labored once again.

He suddenly whipped his body back, grabbing Namie's hand and pushing her. They stumbled forward towards the mystery door, Namie's heels echoing,  _ clack, clack, clack! _ Izaya ripped it open, ushering her inside. She didn't look behind, didn't look to the door to see if there was something huge and scary waiting to eat them, she just went forward, slipping into the darkness of what looked like a hallway. An angered scream tore through the silent air, and Namie was more than certain her heels were what gave them away. Izaya slipped in right beside her, closing the door softly. He pressed his back up against the wall, breathing hard.

Namie went to work on her shoes, buckle after buckle coming off until she was standing in nothing but her nylons. It had to have been several minutes, and the silence once again was dragging on. Izaya was intently watching the light underneath the door, his injured hand coming out to grab onto one of Namie's.

They stood like that for what felt like hours, Izaya's shaking hands telling Namie stories that she didn't want to know. She held her shoes loosely in one hand, simply considering just setting them down and leaving them.

She should have stayed in the car. But if she had, what would be different?

Izaya's breathing suddenly hitched. Namie watched as the light underneath the door suddenly went out, leaving them in swallowing shadows. Izaya's breath caught, and he picked himself from the wall, silently tiptoeing down the hall with Namie in tow. She didn't protest, didn't speak. Just simply followed him with a quiet determination to keep calm. Panicking wouldn't get them anywhere, and so far Izaya looked good too. He had a hand out to the wall to guide them, and she monetarily wondered how long he had been alone in the darkness for. The hallway was empty, save for them, and they quickly made it down to what Namie thought was a dead end.

She was just beginning to think that they were going to die when a door suddenly creaked open. She gasped, jumping against Izaya's arm, glancing around blindly in the dark.

He chuckled, because  _ he _ had opened the next door, and tried to drag her through. She was rooted where she stood, thoughts skyrocketing and emotions not quite making sense. “Come,” he whispered. He didn't have to tell her twice. She trusted him, only because he had survived this long.  _ How long was that thing chasing them!? I could have helped them earlier! _

Learning from past mistakes, Izaya left the door open just in case it was locked, and they tiptoed through together almost silently.

_ Almost  _ silently, until there was no longer a floor underneath Izaya's step, and he went crashing forward with a gasp, dragging Namie with him. Namie squealed, suddenly airborne, and they crashed down onto stairs, Namie landing on Izaya. He groaned, suddenly rolling, and they tumbled down four or five steps before landing in a heaping tangle of limbs. Namie recovered first, sitting up to her knees and wiping at her face where she had knocked into Izaya's shoulder. She couldn't tell if it stung because it was bleeding, but at the same time, she didn’t really care. The informant himself was groaning, struggling to sit up. On the way down, Namie had lost her shoes, but she didn't mind. They had been proving to be a hindrance, after all.

Feeling around with her hand, Namie caught a handful of slimy fur and pulled herself closer. “Izaya?” She had left her phone on the desk back in the main room, so she didn't even have that to use as a light. She couldn't see anything! How did they manage like this!? “Izaya!”

“ Shush,” He snapped, sitting up finally and grabbing her arms. “We need to keep-”

“ _ Friends...” _ The voice echoed down the hallway quietly, as if the beast was trying to whisper.  _ “Oh no, oh no, friends, no, go, go, go, go!” _ Namie almost squeaked, eyes narrowed in the darkness. There was no noise, no indication that the beast was going to pursue them. Instead, judging by the flickering red light at the top of the stairs, he stood at the first doorway whispering a mantra of  _ no _ and  _ go. _ Namie found herself shoved up against Izaya, clinging to his jacket and silently cursing his entire existence while Izaya snaked a hand over her mouth just in case.

Would he come in after them? The beast moaned, the sound of a door closing echoing down the hallway.  _ “No... Oh no...” _

Izaya let go of Namie, carefully untangling them and ducking on his feet, glancing up towards the door. He couldn't see anything, but that wasn't exactly his concern. He was more concerned by the fact that the beast wouldn't come down there.  _ He must have known we were here. So why? _

It didn't matter. He grabbed Namie's hand, pulling her along quietly down the hallway, away from the door. There had to be somewhere to go. They snuck through silently, the mourning sound of the beasts voice growing more and more distant until they couldn't hear him at all. A couple of more doors opened them up to more halls, and eventually, one of them was locked.

Izaya was panting, rubbing his hands over the walls while he searched for a door. Namie was just off to his side, fingers rubbing over a smooth protrusion from the wall. It felt familiar, but she couldn't quite place what it was.

Suddenly, a little box lit up. A small screen flashed to life with a smiley ball on it, and it rolled out its greeting cheerfully despite the situation. Izaya hissed, flinching and ducking back over beside Namie while she glanced down to the familiar little character. A small smile tugged at her lips. Perhaps they were safe after all?

“ Password, please.” The little ball stated quietly, in a painfully eerie voice.

Izaya eyed it, finally sighing. Password? Unless they could find a way to bypass it, the security probably wouldn't let them through. There was nothing about this in the email from Fuzen. “We're going to have to go back.” He said.

“ Dullahan.” Namie glanced down, hand on the wall. They had gone too far to turn back now. What if the beast was just waiting for them at the end of the hall still? What if it had followed them? What if this was just some ploy to get them cornered?

“ Password approved. Please proceed with caution.”

Izaya tensed, glancing at the box worriedly before almost jumping out his skin.

Fluorescent lights suddenly flickered to life above them, blinding and bright as they came on, one after another down the hallway behind them. There was a massive concrete door in front of them, a long diagonal slit suddenly forming while the massive doors came apart noisily, disappearing into the walls. Izaya stepped forward cautiously, eyes narrowed. The concrete door opened up to a smaller, concrete room. There was another door straight ahead with another box sitting in the wall. They waited a couple of seconds, ready to fight if they had to, but nothing else moved. Nothing even made a noise.

Izaya glanced over his shoulder, glad to see no figures looming down the incredibly long hallway. Skittishly, they both crept into the room with Namie in the lead, Izaya internally panicking that the concrete doors were going to slide shut and that they would be trapped forever.

There was something incredibly foreboding, but incredibly intriguing about the place.

Namie crept towards the box, hand still linked with Izaya's. She touched the screen carefully like it could break, watching as the little yellow ball came to life, smiling at her.

“ Would you like to initiate Project S?” The little ball asked, way too cheerily. Its voice echoed in the small room, and Izaya couldn't quite wrap around his head  _ why _ they would have massive concrete doors protecting a  _ small room with a box. _

“ I would like a status update.” Namie said, not sure if the words would register. She glanced over her shoulder at Izaya when his hand become unbearably tight in hers. He was staring at the doors, the flicker of his elevated heart rate visible in his throat. “And keep the doors open.”

“ Roger.” The ball said, rolling about the screen. It suddenly jumped, giving off a huge grin and rocking side to side. “Status update as follows: Project G is out of containment. Would you like to set the alarm?”

“ No,” Namie said quickly with only a hint of confusion, pulling on Izaya's hand to get him to come closer. They didn't need alarms sounding, that wouldn't help their case at all. He stepped beside her, hand clammy in hers, staring down at the little box, absorbing all the information it was giving like a sponge. “Continue.”

The ball rolled, smiling cheerily. “Roger. Status update is as follows: Project G is out of containment. Project S is ready for examination. Project D is currently deceased. Three unidentified humans are on premise. Would you like a status update on unidentified humans? Would you like to alert head Sire? Dr. Kishitani is not on premises. Facility damage is at thirty-eight percent. Power usage is at fourteen percent. There is a leak in section K-84. Water wastage at eighty-four percent.”

“ Stop.” Namie said, mind spinning. The little ball abruptly halted its update, several things lighting up and flickering over the screen. Izaya's face had gone blank as he stared at the device, mind clearly churning at the little  _ Kishitani _ mention. It couldn't be in reference to Shinra. She turned to him, muttering quietly, “Should we open all doors so we can get out?”

Izaya nodded solemnly, mind churning, though he looked more drained than he had before. “Open all doors. It'll put us at risk but Shinra can get out that way too. Though... if we can get out, that giant can get out just as easily.” He suddenly glanced up at the concrete door in thought. “You came in through that little stairwell, maybe we should take a look in here and then aim to go back if we can't get out. If Goliath is still in the room, we can run past him, maybe. Maybe he won't fit? We'll call Shinra, he's not stupid enough to leave any of the phones on volume.”

Namie nodded, turning back to the little screen.  _ How do you know Shinra has the phones? _ She wondered, but decided that it wasn't the time to ask such a question. If they opened all doors, the scary guy might go out, might go outside even. They could sneak back to the main room and call Shinra, and he could find a way out and they could get out too. “Please open all doors: all emergency exits and powered doors.” Namie said confidently, already planning for what to do when they got outside.

“ Please confirm: Requesting verbal bypass to open all facility doors.” The little ball said, sitting in the center of the screen. It wasn't rolling anymore, and it was starting to turn red.

“ Request confirmed.” Namie answered, watching as the little ball grinned.

“ Request accepted. Opening all facility doors.”

The huge concrete door in front of them suddenly shifted apart from a split down the middle along with the groaning of the rest of the building. There were several echoes of harsh buzzing noises, indicating that doors were swinging open from multiple floors. Izaya pulled Namie closer to him, watching as the massive concrete doors continued to open. He glanced over his shoulder, pleased to see that they were still free to go back if they wished.

Namie glanced forward, watching as a dim light flickered to life in what looked like a small dead end. She clicked her tongue, gently squeezing Izaya's injured hand in annoyance. “Now what would they possibly put behind such thick security. I don't even think Heiwajima would be able to break out of this.” She said, eyeing the thickness of the doors as they slowly disappeared into the walls. They were easily four meters long, massive doors made of concrete solid enough to withstand even Godzilla. Probably.

Izaya peeked in seeing only the right side of the room from where he stood, the doors now six feet apart. It indeed was a small room, maybe twelve by twelve, housing nothing but scattered, broken items. It looked like a smaller version of the room they were standing in. Now what was the purpose of that? “Namie...”

Namie, however, got a good glimpse of the left side of the room while the doors were still sliding open. She immediately rushed forward, hitting the screen. “Shut this door!” She whispered in alarm, dragging Izaya along with her. He blinked in confusion, not quite understanding her change in attitude.

The little ball waved a finger on the screen. “Please wait. Request status: opening all facility doors.”

Izaya glanced into the room, his blood suddenly running cold. “We won't have time!” He pulled suddenly, taking Namie with him a step away from the box. She almost tripped before swinging herself around, back to the door. She grabbed onto his wrist to stop him from dragging her, her face serious and determined.

“ Izaya, we need to close the -” She stopped abruptly, watching Izaya's face go from worried to terrified in the matter of a nanosecond. He was looking over her shoulder, his breath leaving him involuntarily.

She glanced over her shoulder herself, mind changing gears and planning a new tactic. No. They wouldn't have time to close the door, because by the time she spoke the words, it would be pointless. Shaking, she took several steps closer to Izaya hand squeezing his without even thinking of his injury. He didn't even flinch.

“ Run,” He whispered abruptly, yet he didn't move as if they were frozen in time. “Run!”

“ Status update,” the little ball on the screen suddenly said, disturbing the silence of their standstill. “Project S is out of containment. Would you like to set the alarm?”

 

\- % & ~ -

 

Shinra flinched the second the doors began to open. He was lost somewhere on the basement floor searching tirelessly for the room Namie had claimed to be in.

_ The light is on, she says. _ And he went into the room with the light, just to find the 'laboratory' - as the sign had said – stairwell lit up by emergency lights. He had ended up in the basement – he assumed it was the basement given that the tiles beneath his socks were incredibly fancy, and in all cases, fancy floors meant scary scientist lab basements – and he had ended up just wandering around aimlessly. There were hallways upon hallways, doors upon doors. He was lost – he couldn't even find the stairs where he had started. He had a headache. His face was throbbing. He was in a sour mood. His glasses were broken. He kind of wanted to punch Izaya's ghost in the face. And he had snapped at the little spider for making too much noise, and now it was hiding in his pants pocket again.

Goliath had made it downstairs as well, screeching and making a racket, but for all the noise, the monster simply bypassed him a while ago. Shinra had yet to find the room with the light, and he had the fleeting thought that maybe, if his concussion hadn't rendered him spinning and sick, he should have followed Goliath. The beast had been irritated, and generally seemed to know its way around.  _ And now all the lights are on! Hurray! _

He was at a loss. He had called Namie again, but this time, she hadn't answered. He wasn't too worried about it though; it was Namie, she was capable of taking better care of herself then him or Izaya put together. He had heard Goliath screaming, but what else was new? As long as it wasn't screaming at him. Rolling his eyes, he continued down the nice hallway he was in, glancing at all the doors and all their labels. All the doors were closed, and he really just assumed they were all locked because he was too tired to check  _ every single one. _

When he came to the end of the hallway, his only choice was to turn right and to descend a couple of metal steps, taking him onto what looked like a cat walk. He quickly trotted down the steps, glancing around almost carefree. The catwalk was suspended in a small, dimly lit concrete room. There was another staircase to his left that would take him down to the nicely tiled flooring once again, and this turn of events impeded on his already down mood. For a moment.

But most importantly, there were two doors in his view. There was the one to the left, right in front of the stairs. The wall was busted, and the door was missing – Goliath must have gotten pissed off – and the light was out, nothing but the eerie flicker of a red emergency light against the tiled flooring. The second door was popped open like it had been part of the system that had been set off. There were several doors that had popped open, but most of them sounded like they had come from the distance. The door now in question was thick, made solidly out of concrete, and after staring at it for a few minutes, Shinra grinned.

That was the door he had seen on the camera in the Control Room, way, way back when they had originally started this mission. Just now, the door was propped open instead of closed, free for his exploring.

He had wanted to do this since they came here, right? At least he got to check this out before he died.

Excitedly, he skipped down the steps, not caring that his wet heels echoed in the space around him. He bypassed the room with the busted wall, not noticing the large man creeping up the steps from inside.

Shinra stopped in front of the massive door, a giant smile playing on his lips. Carefully, he held up his camcorder and took a step in, glancing around. It looked like he was standing in the entryway to a little, well used medical room. There was a dresser to the right, littered with tools and things and files on top of it. A full-length mirror straight ahead. There was a light in the middle with a cord hanging from the ceiling. Shinra was tempted to pull it, but he was more intrigued with the shower curtain hanging from the wall to his left than anything else. It covered everything, hiding away the entire left side of the room, and that right there spelled  _ secrets _ .

Shinra stepped into the little four foot foyer, camcorder poised for when he pulled the curtain back. He grabbed it, cold beneath his hand, and pulled it out gently so that he could peek in, a small smile adorning his lips. It was a small examination section, small enough to house the body on the lab table against the wall, and one maybe two doctors could fit into the space. It was tiny.

But wait.

On the table.

Shinra's eyebrows shot up, his mouth opening slightly and all the air rushed out of his chest. He was about to step in, when a thick hand wrapped around his mouth, another around his waist, and he was dragged out of the room kicking and swinging his arms. He was carried from one room to the next, passing through the busted door.

“ _ Friend...” _

He kicked harder, mind racing and thoughts screaming. Goliath had him in his grasps again, and he was sure that his luck had run out by now. He was going to die. He should have been more careful. Where the hell was Namie in her lighted room!? Thrashing, Shinra almost twisted his own neck from how hard he was fighting, nails clawing at the skin around his midsection, holding him effortlessly in the air. He tried to scream again as Goliath casually strolled down the stairs, crossing the large room.

A shrill scream suddenly echoed loud and clear, the snap of lights turning on following shortly behind. Suddenly, the lights in the room stubbornly flickered back on, momentarily blinding Shinra. Goliath dropped him, taking a step back and screaming, hands slapping at his eyes.

Shinra landed on his hands and knees, struggling to get to his feet. He whirled around, glancing at the large theater styled room in an attempt to make an escape plan. There was a giant glass dome in the middle. A bookshelf.

Namie's jacket and cellphone on a nearby desk.

And a wooden door.

It had to be the door that Namie had taken to come in! Shinra ran, Goliath still stunned and swatting at the light. He was growling menacingly but didn't pose a threat as Shinra scampered over, ripping the door open. There was a hallway lit up, and he ran down it, bursting through the next door and -

“ Whaaah!” He missed the steps, crashing down fourteen stairs like Izaya and Namie had previously. He landed wrong on his arm, something creaking and he cried out, twisting on the floor until he landed in a heap. He had managed to keep his head safe – finally – and he took in a deep breath. His arm didn't feel broken. Maybe a sprained wrist? Pulled muscle? It stung, but the impact on the floor had hurt much more. Sitting up, Shinra sighed, struggling to get to his knees so he could get to his feet. He glanced at the hall at the next door, squinting down what had to have been thirty feet. If Goliath recovered, he could outrun him in a heartbeat.

Another shrill scream echoed down  _ that _ hallway, blocked off by the far away door, and Shinra instantly thought of Namie.  _ She must have wandered down when Goliath came down... _ He froze, not sure if he would be any help rushing to her rescue. She sounded far off, and he didn't know if he could even make it fast enough.  _ What if she ends up like Izaya?  _ He stepped forward, knowing in his heart that Celty would be incredibly  _ mad _ if he didn't do something, but he was stopped by a large hand wrapping around the back of his shirt again, Goliath half blindly hauling him up and back the way he had come.

“ Put me down!” He yelled, kicking and grabbing at the monster's hand. He even considered unbuttoning his shirt and slipping out, but he couldn't even see with how much the beast was jostling him around. “I need to help her! Let me go!”

Goliath groaned, muttering a series of _no_ 's, quickly taking them back into the main room. _“Go, go,”_ He stormed clear across the room before throwing Shinra towards an open glass door – an open entrance. Shinra tripped when his feet hit the ground, landing on his hands and knees again in a little stairwell, glancing up at the looming staircase. _The staircase to the courtyard...?_ _“Go! GO!”_ Goliath screamed behind him, and Shinra twisted, thinking that the beast was going to jump him. The monster – one hundred times uglier in the light – was waving his hands, glancing over his shoulder in almost despair. _“GO, GO, GO!!!”_

Shinra froze, confused.  _ Was he trying to get us out this entire time!? _ Suddenly, the little behavioral ticks made  _ sense. _ He hadn't been  _ chasing _ them, he had been trying to get them  _ out. _ He wanted them to  _ leave. _ To  _ go. _

Goliath suddenly spun on his toes and loudly sniffed. He growled, a low threatening sound rumbling through his body and the floor beneath Shinra. He scampered off to the side with a slight duck to his posture, low and predatory. Shinra watched him go, confusion plastered onto his face.  _ “Oh no... no, no no...” _

There was another screech, the door Shinra had just gone through bursting open loud enough to make even Goliath jump. Namie and an incredibly dirty Izaya sprinted through the door, skidding across the tile. They spotted Goliath by the door – their original escape plan – and instantly turned away, hitting the stairs.

“ Izaya!” Shinra got up, almost tripping in his haste, running to the doorway in complete awe.  _ He's alive!  _ “Izaya!!!”

Izaya abruptly froze on the steps, glancing over his shoulder with wide eyes. He looked back, Namie just as ragged as he was at his side, before he glanced over to Goliath. His mouth quirked into a half smile, eyes darting around for a spontaneous plan. Namie squeaked, slapping her free hand over her mouth again and turning away, tugging at Izaya's hand when she spotted Goliath. She didn't sign up for this.

“ Come here, he'll let you through!” Shinra yelled, stepping into the room. Goliath was skulking around the perimeter, eyes set on the door that Izaya and Namie had just burst through like a hound ready to strike and kill. Izaya eyed the beast before pulling Namie down, shoving her forward and towards Shinra cautiously, eyes never leaving the beast that had just spent hours chasing them. Goliath paid them no attention as he crept closer, several feet away from the door. He was hunched over, eyes squeezed to slits from the light and propped up on his feet silently. He paused, crouching like he was about to spring with a gentle snarl.

Izaya and Namie flew back down the steps just as the door they had burst through splintered open, the entire door ripping from its hinges and exploding into the room.

Shinra ducked around the glass corner, standing on the first step with his back to the concrete when the door crashing through the air, slamming into the glass wall and shattering it with a deafening screech. He closed his eyes before leaning over, trying to peek around the wall. There was glass all over the ground, and his feet would get sliced up in the matter of seconds.

“ Fuck it,” He jumped down, glass instantly slicing into the soles of his feet, as predicted. He whipped his head violently around the corner, hardly feeling the pain, face contorted as he glanced to the scene at hand. The light in the hallway was off now, and he could make out the general shape of a giant humanoid. Namie was on the floor, nose bleeding and eyes slitted angrily, while Izaya was perched precariously on the last step as if he were debating running by or fleeing back the way they had been going.

The humanoid ducked out from the doorway, taller, but skin and bones unlike Goliath with a face more grotesque. Like a rotting skeleton, it was missing eyes, lips and ears, the grey skin on its face sagging with deterioration, leaving nothing but the skull showing through. There was no meat on its bones, and unlike Goliath, it was showing the signs of its starvation and captivity. Lanky and not able to straighten its legs to its full height – probably close to nine feet – its spine sagged, dropping its shoulders over in an unhealthy fashion while its stomach sunk in underneath it's ribcage, every bone countable and protruding. It leaned forward to catch the wall, one bony hand clamping around the door frame and crushing it in it's grasps. Weak or not, it still had the capability to crush the walls, and probably the bones in each of their bodies. There was black smoke whispering from its skin, floating up to the ceiling and blocking out the light. It bellowed, voice hollow and deadly, deep enough to shake the building and echo throughout all of the floors, sending shivers straight up both Shinra and Izaya's spine.

This was the beast they had heard earlier. It stepped away from the doorway, long fangs bared and angry. It snarled at Namie who was on the ground, before whipping its head towards Izaya, the closest human. Breathing in heavily through the gaping holes in its face, it's blinded sockets crept Izaya's way, face lowering in a threatening manner like a snake about to strike.

Izaya took a step back, almost tripping on the step, hairs rising on his neck when Goliath suddenly sprung, thick fingers extended and mouth open. It landed on the lanky monster, teeth digging into the flesh of its shoulder and it screamed, the sound alone deafening the humans in the room, leaving their ears ringing right after.

Izaya ran for it. He panicked, sprinting up to Namie and dragging her to her feet in a clumsy fashion, ears still ringing and adrenaline at its maximum. They awkwardly took off towards Shinra at the door, and the second Shinra saw that they were coming, he took off up the stairs.

Goliath was thrown off just as Namie and Izaya hit the stair case, Izaya shoving Namie ahead of him. There was a massive  _ crash _ when Goliath landed on one of the tables, crushing it and everything else beneath it, followed by an angry grunt. Namie was slow to start, Izaya practically pushed her up the first step, glancing behind him warily to make sure he was ready in case of an attack.

As fast as imminent darkness, the lanky beast was in the stairwell, slipping it's ugly narrow frame through the entrance. It growled, a soft purr that vibrated through the walls, shaking the steps beneath their feet. It reached out and with one swing of it's lanky arm, Izaya was crashing into the wall only a step up, trapped beneath its fingers while it leaned into him. Izaya screeched, face twisting in both anger and pain when he collided, both arms trapped to his body. There were several cracks, one being the wall, and the faceless monster growled out, shadows flickering across the floor. And rising up against the walls, tickling the informants face and slowly circling about him.

“ Go!” Shinra screeched, dragging Namie up by her forearms and sending her stumbling up the steps. He threw his jacket Namie's way and she – in a moment of panic – caught it without thinking before Shinra turned back to the monster, scalpel in hand.

“ Shinra!” Namie froze, not sure she liked the idea of just leaving the boys to survive on their own. How the fuck would she explain any of this if neither of them made it out? Not to mention that she was sort of human, and would probably feel bad for her interference. Izaya and Shinra could die, but they wouldn't die because of something she did or did not do.

“ I left him to die once, I won't do it again.” Shinra snapped back and with the perfect flick of his wrist, the scalpel pierced through the thin flesh on the monster's hand. It screeched, swiping out and turning Shinra's way, but Shinra was too far, running down the stairs. Izaya slid, falling to the floor spineless, and Shinra went after him, ducking under the next swing.

Namie took a step up, breathing hard and mind swimming. She blinked away tears of confusion before spinning on her heels and racing up the steps.


	9. What is That?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They've been through a lot, so why end the fun here?

There was nothing else she could do.

That was what she told herself the entire way up the stairs, thighs burning and chest heaving, mouth dry and hands shaking despite their tight grip in Shinra's lab coat. There was nothing she could do, nothing she _could_ have done. Nothing except run, just like she had been told. In that moment, she didn't even think of Seiji; her undying love for him or even his smile. To be completely honest with herself, his name never even crossed her mind.

It was just Shinra and Izaya.

Shinra was more than capable, she reminded herself, and Izaya had this nasty habit of surviving even in the worst possible conditions. She had left them, but she had only taken herself out of an equation that she could only complicate. They would make it. She was an extra person, and now they didn't have to worry about her. She couldn't help them anyway. They could escape. _I should have said something to Izaya sooner..._

Panting hard, she finally hit the top step, falling into the door when her muscles gave out, her mind groaning at the sudden wave of confusing emotions and regret. The door flew open, smashing against the wall behind it when she fell forward, and the telltale signs of a struggle echoed up from the stairwell. _They'll be okay, they'll be okay._ She hit the ground scraping her palms and tearing the nylons at her knees, Shinra's dirty jacket suffering the same fate. Grunts and groans and growls trailed up behind her from the depths of the belly, encouraging her to her sore feet, pushing her to rush out of the little stairwell where she grabbed onto the door and slammed it shut behind her, dropping her back against it and taking in a much needed breath.

The air was cold, and it stung at her lungs, but she didn't really pay attention. Didn't really note the way her muscles were cramping and her sides screaming. The closed door wouldn't save her if either of those monsters decided to come her way – friend or foe – but she didn't really care about this either.

_They will be okay. They will get out._

Her throat burned when she gasped for air again, sending white flashes across her eyes, but she didn't hang around for long. The screaming down below suggested for her to move when a blood curdling screech sent her heart leaping in her chest. She had an _idea_ on how to help, what she could do to be useful, but the idea would only be helpful if she could make it back in time. It would only make a difference if the men were still alive when she returned – if not, she would most likely die down there with them.

Even though she couldn't breathe, her chest tight and constricted, she pushed off from the door with newfound determination, sprinting back the way she had originally come through the long grass. It whipped at her, not parting as easily as it once had, and she found the threat of tripping a great reality. Long stalks curled around her ankles and waist, and suddenly the run seemed further and more difficult than before – more tedious and frustrating. She managed to jump the fence almost as gracefully as she had in the first place – tearing a palm open in the process – landing heavily on her feet on the other side. She took off towards her vehicle, nylons torn and feet bleeding, her heels striking every rock without fail. The pain did not register. Her mind was numb and set on one idea, and one idea only.

She still had that gun in the glove compartment.

 

\- % & ~ -

 

Somehow, Shinra ended up back in the main room, ducking under the first row of desks with an unconscious Izaya cradled in his arms. In informant was warm against his chest and still breathing – thank the Gods really – but the amount of dirt on his skin and general being prevented Shinra from seeing any sort of bruising. It was really all just a blur – one moment they were trying to make their grand escape, the next, Shinra was sending Namie ahead and turning back for _Izaya_ , of all people, after he dropped to the ground like nothing more than a sack of potatoes.

Shinra suddenly stiffened, his jumbled thoughts halting. The skeletal humanoid was screaming from within the tiny staircase, voice shaking the walls and the floors as it tried to twist it's tall frame around to get back out the way it had come. Shinra had been quick to drag Izaya out, and the monsters lack of proportion and over powered swing had knocked the entire beast over.

Shinra just hoped it hadn't crushed the stairs.

Right beside them, Goliath was struggling to get up, a series of groans and pained moans echoing throughout the room while the lights began to flicker, shadows rising from the humanoid in anger. There were multiple questions suddenly running through Shinra's head, but he had more important matters to attend to. Like the unconscious informant cradled in his arms, and the fact that Goliath's toes touched the ground on the step right beside them, the giant human swaying as he slowly brought himself to his feet. _If Goliath dies, we're next._ Shinra didn't like the idea of being a pessimist, but this situation definitely called for it. While he would have liked to study the giant human in the future, sacrificing it for their own lives sounded much more appealing.

If anything, Shinra needed to be the optimist here. They would get out, and they would get out _alive. I need a_ _plan,_ _I need a plan, oh shit..._ There was a snarl from above, Goliath challenging the other monster in the room once again, and the humanoid hissed in acceptance. The fight wasn't over, and Shinra didn't want to be a part of it.

“Hurry up, Hurry up,” Shinra slapped Izaya across the face, the shrill echo of skin meeting skin getting swallowed out by the screams of things that should not be. Shinra tried to ignore the legs shifting right beside him, the fact that with one step Goliath could crush them both. Shinra was underneath the desk where Namie had originally been sitting, practically straddling his friend in hopes of waking him up – and so far, it didn't appear as though Izaya would be waking up anytime soon. Shinra slapped him again, getting no response. If Izaya had a concussion before, chances are, the one he had now was ten times worse. Not to mention the cracks that had echoed in the stairwell may have been bones – but Shinra didn't have time to check for these. He needed Izaya up, and he needed him awake _now._ “Izaya -”

The massive humanoid broke through the wall with a single hand, the remaining glass shattering and the steel reinforcement in the wall screaming as it crumbled down to the floor. The monster was crouched, forcing it's way through with it's massive mouth agape and drool dripping to the floor, eyeless sockets locked on Goliath. A handful of twisted steel slammed into the ground, the once perfect flooring cracking all around it like the world was about to cave in. Once again, the creature let out a deafening scream.

Izaya stirred with a groan, face crinkling and eyes squeezing shut in pain, one hand shooting out to grab onto Shinra's wrist with a vice grip while the other slapped over his right ear.

Goliath screeched in response, carefully shifting over to the stairs before charging at the abnormality once again, footsteps thundering down the steps. They clashed in the doorway, the humanoid meeting Goliath's charge like a brick wall, both bone thin arms raised in defense. Goliath lunged, thick, massive hands wrapping around protruding bones while his face snapped forward, a double set of teeth tearing into the lanky humanoid's shoulder. The humanoid screamed, one hand coming back to rip Goliath off, throwing him back to the ground where he landed on his feet. They snapped at each other, circling each other like rabid wolves, teeth and jaws clapping together so painfully loud that Izaya cringed, abruptly sitting up and almost bashing his head off of the desk. “Shin-”

“Get up!” Shinra whispered eyes wide on the sight before him, grabbing Izaya's arm and dragging him in a crouch towards the next row of desks, “Stay low, we need to go!” He snapped with a pull, dropping Izaya's arm to slip between chairs on his hands and knees, Izaya blindly following after him in a crouch. Goliath suddenly lunged, and the sounds of a violent fight rumbled through the room. They would never make it through the door, not with the giant humanoid and Goliath fighting in the way. Shinra crawled up the next step, crouching under the desk, his eyes set on the door. _What if...?_ They needed to get out of the room without either monster noticing them. To divert them when one finally died. Perhaps hide until the storm was over, so they could sneak out without being chased. _Hopefully_ _Goliath wins..._

A loud _crash_ had both men flinching and almost hitting their heads when Goliath was thrown into the nearby wall, his screech abruptly ending when he crashed to the floor, desks splintering in his wake and chairs snapping. Black shadows began to heavily form around the light source, the humanoid standing up tall in victory as the room slowly began to fade to black. He roared in triumph, the lights flickering and the room shaking.

He was the God of this realm.

“Go _where!?_ ” Izaya snapped, dirty face still contorted in pain and now confusion. He hissed every time he stepped, his feet torn, hand still bandaged, and the burns reminding him of his previous hell. His head was throbbing a steady rhythm in his temple, eyes watering and he blearily tried to follow after Shinra. It was getting darker at an alarming rate, and Izaya found that his vision was becoming poorer with every second that passed. “Shin-”

“The room next door,” Shinra reached back, grabbing onto Izaya's wrist and then hauling him out from underneath the table. Izaya almost tripped when he was dragged to his feet, and audible gasp leaving his mouth. “Run!”

Izaya didn’t have to be told twice, considering that Goliath was moaning and struggling to stand up from where he had landed amongst the tables and chairs. He wouldn't be able to distract the monstrous creature for too much longer, given that he could hardly stand. There was what looked like blood sliding down the side of his face – missing skin had been torn off, making him look more gruesome than before – while the nine foot skeleton seemed more interested in moving prey. It's head slowly shifted to face the two running men, it's mouth opening up as if it were eerily smiling. It roared the moment Shinra and Izaya hit the staircase, its bellowing voice shaking the stairs in which they were trying to climb, before it went charging after them, the sound of bare feet slapping on the linoleum their only indication.

Izaya didn't dare look behind him. He was already wheezing, the world spinning around him. Shinra somehow managed to keep them both running despite the darkness and the narrow steps, thighs burning and breath coming out hard, as they burst through the door and abruptly tried to turn the sharp corner. Shinra slipped, his grip ripping off of Izaya's wrist the moment he fell to his face and skidded across the smooth floor. Izaya was left bewildered in the doorway, his steps stumbling right in front of the mysterious door Shinra had found something interesting in. He didn't fall, but instead glanced over with wide eyes as Shinra hit the wall right under the catwalk. “Shin-”

“Pull the lever in there! Left! Behind the curtain!!” Shinra yelled, struggling to get back onto his feet. He suddenly glanced over to the door-less entrance they had just come through, his eyes widening as he struggled to get to his feet faster. The humanoid burst through the door with a screech – Izaya practically jumping out of his skin and darting into the dark neighboring room out of sheer fright – where it too slipped on the linoleum flooring and crashed to the ground in a heap of splayed limbs. It slid violently, smashing into the wall under the staircase with a yowl and a flailing arm tripping Shinra back down, the metal catwalk falling from the force of the impact. It crashed into the monster, trapping it for a precious moment, missing Shinra's face by a mere inch.

Izaya was in the room in a heartbeat, breath coming out in ragged pants as he blindly waved his arms around in the dark. His chest was painfully throbbing along with his head, the threat of tears finally making themselves present. Was there a light? Why was it out when the rest were on? Shinra had said something about a curtain? And a lever? He wasn't made for this kind of excitement – this was too much, even for him. The room was small and a few steps in his injured hand hit something slick like plastic, the rippling sound not echoing in the small space. A curtain. Thank whatever God or Devil that had put him in this awful situation. Without hesitating – perhaps he trusted in Shinra a little too much – he grabbed at the curtain, violently attempting to tear it away or to the side so that he could step in and find this lever. _It better not be like the generator lever, and only a theory._

His hips hit a high rise table the moment he tried to step behind the curtain, metal cracking painfully against bone. Shinra screeched from outside the room, the sound of the massive humanoid crushing metal ringing in Izaya's ears as he clambered onto the table – most likely a surgical table given how it chilled his knees through his pants – his hands meeting cold, hard flesh. “ _Fuck._ ” He pulled his hands away, balancing on the edge of the table by his knees before reaching out to slap his good hand against the wall, mouth tightly clamped shut as he waved his hand around, trying to find this lever in the dark. There were three possible walls, unless there was another curtain in the room? But Shinra had said left, and Izaya had gone left? _It's just a dead body, no worries, it's dead, find the lever, what does this lever even do... holy fuck Shinra..._ With a whimper and his eyes squeezed shut, Izaya threw one knee over the body, leaning forward so that both hands could quickly roam over the wall. His fingertips were met with cold, solid walls. _There better be a damn lever Shinra and it better get us out of here..._

“Izaya!” Shinra squeaked from outside just as another _crash_ shook the whole building, the table in which Izaya was kneeling on shaking from the force. Izaya's good hand dropped to the table from the jostle, landing on a metal restraint tightly wrapped around an arm in which he was hovering over. _It's a body. A full body. Oh_ _fuck_ _no._ The humanoid snarled nastily outside, more metal crashing to the ground as it struggled to get up from beneath the fallen catwalk. Shinra shrieked again before Goliath roared in the room next door. He was back up, and still looking to fight. _Fuck, fuck, Izaya get a hold of yourself, the lever, the damn fucking lever...._

“Shinra!” Both hands went back to the walls, and after swinging his hands around as fast as he could, his injured palm suddenly struck protruding metal in the right corner. Without hesitating, Izaya grabbed onto it with both hands, pulling blindly on the protrusion in hopes that this was the damned lever Shinra had been talking about. What did it do? They were about to find out.

The metal rod slowly drifted downwards, the metal creaking as Izaya put all of his strength into it, until it _clicked_ , the distant sound of a generator whirring to life. Izaya almost cheered if not for the sounds of Goliath entering the scene outside with a battle cry, the sound of twisted metal careening off linoleum flooring and the humanoid screaming in sudden agony. Izaya was panting, now becoming aware of his hands and whole body trembling. There was a hiss in the room as Shinra rushed in, air pressure being released, and the table beneath Izaya's knees shifted. The metal clamps on the body snapped open with five distinct _clicks_ , the one around the dead torso snapping into both of his thighs painfully. Izaya, still with his eyes closed, raised his head, struggling to breathe through his nose.

“The light, why is it off?” Shinra was wheezing, running right up to the table and grabbing onto Izaya's shoulders. “Izaya! Is he-”

An alarm suddenly went off, the piercing sound almost scaring Izaya off of the table as a red light on the wall suddenly flashed in warning. He choked, grabbing onto Shinra's arms and glaring straight ahead when a light flashed from within the wall. A voice suddenly echoed throughout the room, red flashes lighting up every couple of seconds outside in the hallway where the screeching fight was occurring. _“Project D is out of containment.”_

Izaya all but threw himself off of the body, crashing into Shinra and almost falling, before grabbing his hand. He whirled around the doctor, as if making to leave, peering over his shoulder at the dead human he had just been straddling. The red, flashing glow illuminated a large figure – now no longer restrained to the surgical table, and given how crazy the rest of this place was, Izaya wouldn't have been surprised if the dead body moved – with thick muscles and pale skin still in good condition, like the body hadn't even begun to decay. But Izaya mostly noted that fact that the body was missing a head, and this. _This_ had his mind twisted around in disarray, because all the new details made everything so much more _confusing._

Izaya's stomach suddenly dropped and knotted, his mouth twisting into a grimace as bile ran up his throat. Shinra was frozen where he stood, his face lighting up eerily in the red light. He looked slightly disappointed, as if he had expected the body to move.

“ _Project D is out of containment. Automatic Lock Down in five.”_

“Shinra! We'll get locked in!” Izaya was instantly yelling, harshly pulling on Shinra's arm so hard that the doctor stumbled over, knocked out of his trance. He whirled on his heel, about to give Izaya a lecture about the patience of scientific experimentation, until he saw Izaya's face.

“ _Four.”_

“Shinra!” Fear. Shinra didn't resist as Izaya grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room as fast as he could. His grip was too hard and his breath was coming out too quick for how fast they were moving. It wasn't until they were out of the way of the thick concrete door threatening to close that Izaya slowed down a little. His hand was shaking in Shinra's.

“ _Three.”_

They were out of immediate danger of forever being locked in, but Goliath suddenly blocked the path out when he was thrown through the doorway, crashing through the wall with a deafening explosion against the roaring alarm. Izaya came to an abrupt halt, Shinra slamming into his back and knocking him a step forward. Both monsters were screeching, Goliath in pain and the humanoid in dominance and rage. It rose up from the heap of twisted metal, the catwalk, eyeless sockets landing on Izaya when he froze up in the doorway. Goliath crashed across the floor until he hit the glass dome in the middle, the sound of cracking glass piercing through the alarm. Goliath suddenly stilled, slumping on the ground. The dome shattered, adding to the noise, and suddenly Izaya found his mind swirling, his stomach lurching. The shadows were gone from when the nine foot monster tumbled earlier, the shadows directly linked to its concentration, most likely like Celty's, light leading the way and giving them a clear path towards their exit. _What is this monster?_ Shinra was the first to realize that they could once again attempt to escape.

“ _Two.”_

Shinra ran for it, dragging Izaya through the door and down the steps behind him as fast as he could. This was potentially their chance – if they got into the stairwell, Goliath might get in the way one more time so they could make their escape – if Goliath could get back up, that was. They flew down the stairs and launched off the bottom step, eyes set on the shattered wall leading them upstairs and outside. To freedom. _We can make it. We can make it!_

“ _One.”_

The lights flickered off, the mechanical sound of heavy doors creaking and slamming shut echoing throughout the basement as the lock down shut everything down. The alarm silenced, the red light still flashing in warning and briefly lighting up the room in which they were running through. Izaya gasped when he suddenly fell in the dark, tripping over a knocked over office chair.

“ _Zero.”_

Shinra crashed down after Izaya due to the grip he had on his hand, landing painfully on top of him with a gasp. Something creaked in Izaya's chest – perhaps there had been a cracked bone after all – and Izaya screamed when it finally snapped.

“ _Project D is out of...”_

The words cut off just as a foot slammed down on the steps. It was a rumble in the dark, the flashing red light reflecting ominously against the pale flesh of the nine foot monster. _Crack._ It took another step down, the linoleum stairs splitting beneath it's weight, black sockets honed in on its prey. Shinra yelped, struggling to get his hands and knees on the ground, around Izaya's shaking form. The red light flashed, the monster down two more steps, it's gait slow and predatory like a lion readying to spring, when Shinra finally was able to get to his hands and knees. It still had half the staircase to go, perhaps eight steps in total, when the red light disappeared and plunging him into silence and darkness for another two seconds.

_Five steps._

The red light flashed, the humanoid three steps closer with it's mouth agape, back hunching. Shinra didn't want to test whether or not this one could see in the dark. The red light flickered off, and Shinra struggled to stand up, arms wrapping around Izaya's torso to try and get him up to. Izaya managed to get to his knees, holding on to Shinra with a death grip.

_Two steps._

The flash lit up, the humanoid just stepping down the last step, arms slowly reaching out towards them gently, as if he meant no harm. Shinra, against Izaya's protests, dragged the informant up to his feet by his arms, eliciting a sharp cry that echoed throughout the room. _Something is broken, but we need to go._ The light flashed out, plunging them back into darkness. Shinra backed up quickly, Izaya willingly in tow, attempting to put as much distance as they could between the humanoid and themselves. Holding his breath, Shinra slowly counted to two, feet carefully placing themselves behind them in case something threatened to trip them back down.

The red flash lit up the room. The humanoid was nowhere to be seen.

Shinra froze, Izaya glaring at where the creature should have been before going wide eyed. How does a nine foot monster just disappear? They stopped walking backwards, a sudden wave of panic crashing over both of them, causing Shinra to spin on his heel just as the light flickered off. He could hear himself panting, Izaya wheezing right at his side. _Run. Just run._ He pulled Izaya with him as he turned, suddenly dragging him towards the general area the door had been, his steps hurried. His hands were shaking by the time the emergency light lit up the room again, nothing but silence ringing in their ears. They were ten feet away from the staircase, and there was still no sign of the humanoid. Shinra stared straight ahead, and the second the light flashed off, he took off in a run.

They made it one step

Shinra screeched when he was suddenly plucked from the ground by his waist, nails and bony fingers tearing through his shirt and his skin. Izaya tripped, falling once again with a cry at the sudden shift in support, landing on his back on the floor, warm blood dripping on his face. “Let me go!” Shinra kicked out, his feet colliding with air while his fingers struggled to reach his pockets for scalpels to pierce through skin. He was trying to claw his way out, but that too was proving futile. “Izaya, run!” The informant didn't move, staring up wide eyed, brain short circuiting. _Click, click, click!_ There was a scuttle of legs that came out of Shinra's pocket, the little spider that had been hiding oh so silently finally deciding to make his appearance.

It crawled onto the humanoids hand, its legs clicking with every step. The monster was squeezing, fingers slicing through his skin, dragging Shinra in closer through the air when the red light flashed back on, illuminating a very close, and a very open mouth. Long, sharp fangs with saliva clinging to each tooth, top and bottom, were inching closer to Shinra's face, an endless black hole resting inside the monster's throat. It had no tongue, simply smaller razor sharp teeth to assist it with tearing through flesh. Shinra cringed, his scratching becoming more frantic when suddenly, the humanoid flinched.

Shinra was thrown to the ground, curling up at the last second to minimize the impact, the monster's own hand suddenly becoming fascinating when it spotted the little spider pinching its skin with it's piercing little fangs. Shinra almost laughed through the pain in his stomach, the idea that the spider had saved him – the spider smacked against Shinra's forehead, little legs quivering and clicking frantically when it scurried back down over Shinra's shirt and into his pocket. The monster had flicked it off like the bug it was, wasting no time in stalking closer to Shinra afterward, the light flashing off and then back on before he could even move. “Can you talk!?!” Shinra suddenly yelled, his voice wavering, hands suddenly shaking as he shifted back along the floor. Izaya was a few feet away from him, struggling to get up from the ground. They made eye contact, and Shinra didn't like what he saw.

_This was it._

Immobile on the floor, almost to the exit, and dying at the hands of a monster. This was it. This was how they would end.

He didn't want this.

The light flickered off, and when it flipped back on, the humanoid was on top of him, leaning down with fangs bared, fingers curling around Shinra's thighs and threatening to snap them right in half. Shinra leaned back, cringing away as the rank breath got closer, the pressure in his legs almost becoming unbearable. _Goliath? Izaya!!_

 _Bam_ _!_

Shinra suddenly covered his ears, and explosion piercing through the pained silence of the room. The monster screeched, reeling back and away from Shinra, arms swatting at the air.

 _Bam_ _!_ _Bam_ _!_

It's chest was pierced, flesh splitting and suddenly pouring out blood as the monster stepped back. It wasn't until the fourth round that Shinra realized what he was hearing were _gunshots._ Round five and six followed quickly after, and with a scream, the humanoid collapsed to the ground, arms clutching at it's chest and face weakly.

“Namie!” Izaya was swaying on his feet, ducking low towards Shinra. Shinra almost cried, struggling to his feet and meeting Izaya half way. He was tongue tied, his mind spinning as he reached out for Izaya. “It's not dead, we need to go.” Izaya said quickly, latching on to Shinra's arm for support.

Shinra immediately turned away, dragging Izaya half way across the floor to the entrance. “Namie!” He called, throwing himself at her in a hug the second he was close enough, Izaya almost tripping and awkwardly falling into the group hug with him. Namie wrapped her arms around both of them, scoffing at them for being stupid and almost _dying_ . She dropped the gun. “Thank god, oh god! We need to get out of here!” Shinra exclaimed, glancing over his shoulder at the next light, watching in horror as the humanoid struggled to get up. Apparently six bullets weren't enough to keep it down. “We need to go _now.”_

Namie rushed the boys ahead, shoving them towards the dark staircase, the only light coming from the open door way up at the top. Her eyes locked on the massive figure getting up in the room, it's long limbs shifting to support it's weight like it hadn't been shot six times in the chest. She quickly took off up the stairs after Shinra and Izaya, none of them overly caring that the glass tore at their feet in their haste. They were slow, Shinra practically dragging Izaya, and so she rushed up and ducked beneath Izaya's left arm to help drag him up the steps.

He yelped, something uncomfortably cracking in his chest from the movement, but they didn't exactly have _time_ to be careful of wounds. Namie rushed the steps, Shinra trying his best to keep up, but even he was worn out. He had one hand pressed to his side, his hand covered in his own blood shadowed from Namie's sight. “Guys,” Namie warned, trying to encourage them to hurry up. At this rate, they wouldn't make it. Shinra was slowing down, his breath ragged and uneven. She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see that persistent, lanky figure entering the stair case, it's face glowing in the dark from the light above like some horrifying Halloween decoration. “ _Shit!”_

They rushed. They rushed as fast as they could, Izaya eventually functioning a little more properly, and Shinra pressing on despite how out of breath and in pain he was. The massive humanoid crashed up the stairs with a growl, lanky long legs taking the steps four at a time.

 _We won't make it!_ “What the fuck-” Namie didn't want to die. Namie didn't want _anyone_ to die. She just wanted to get back up to her car and turn on the heat, and drive home to have a nice bath.

She didn't want to get eaten by a monster. She didn't want Shinra to get eaten by a monster. And she most certainly did not want Izaya to get eaten by a monster.

Said monster suddenly shrieked, the sound loud and striking and suddenly stopping the three humans in their tracks. They glanced over their shoulders panting, glancing down as the monster slipped on a step, landing on it's stomach hard enough to shake the stairs. Namie and Shinra reached out to their respective sides, grabbing the railing, Izaya clinging painfully to the both of them. The monster growled, before screaming as it was dragged down the staircase seemingly by the shadows alone. Their limbs froze, hearts pounding painfully in their chest when the monster screamed in pain, the sound of tearing -

They ran with newfound energy.

They went as fast as they could, a pack of limbs and heaving bodies as they struggled to reach the top. The door was still open – just as Namie had left it, and they burst out from the shadows and into the fresh, cold air. Namie shoved the door closed the second they were all out, throwing her back against the door once again while she struggled to catch her breath. The stairs were a pain in the ass, and if anything would catch them, it would be now when they were completely out of breath.

Izaya collapsed where he stood, dragging Shinra down with him. They were both panting hard, thighs burning and lungs heaving. The grass parted and swayed above them, burying them in the gentleness of their rocking. Shinra pulled Izaya close, chuckling lightly whether in fear or humor, no one would know. Izaya simply closed his eyes, struggling to breathe.

Namie hoped he wasn't suffocating from a broken rib or anything. “We should hurry – just in case,” Namie wheezed out, stomping forward through the grass and grabbing onto Izaya's left arm to try and get him back up. She thought about her actions _after_ she did it.

“Ow, _fuck_ ,” he snapped, flinching away and dragging his hand back close to his chest. He was still incredibly dirty with soot and dust and blood, making it hard to see any injuries. Namie pulled her hand back like he had burned her, watching worriedly as he closed his eyes once again.

Shinra simply giggled beside him, patting his knee. He glanced up to Namie, his breath mostly caught. “He broke something.” He stated casually, standing up shakily and dragging the informant with him by the front of his jacket. Izaya went up easily, standing on his own before taking a deep breath.

Namie rolled her eyes, before glancing to the door. Shinra glanced nervously as well before grabbing Izaya's hand and pulling him forward. They were all weary – and hoping that Goliath had been the one to finally drag that monster down.

They didn't need anymore surprises.

Getting Izaya over the fence was more difficult than any of them anticipated. He refused to put pressure on his left arm, his body apparently sore, and when he finally jumped over, he collapsed in a heap that had Namie running over to him to make sure he wasn't dead. Shinra made it over by sheer luck and adrenaline.

Nothing tried to chase them.

They cleared the field, glancing over their shoulders every couple of seconds, expecting the monster to suddenly appear at any given moment. Waiting for the sound of a door bursting from it's hinges, a roar, and an angry mutant rushing out of the building. There was nothing once again, but they still hurried.

They made it to the car, and Namie was so thankful that she had left the doors unlocked. Namie hastily got into the driver's side and slammed the door shut, the seat and steering wheel comfortable and familiar to her. Izaya crawled into the back where Shinra's jacket had been discarded earlier, sitting painfully rigid against the back door, Shinra taking the passenger seat. His wound looked pretty nasty now that they were outside, but he didn't seem overly concerned. Perhaps it was alright. Perhaps they were all alright? It wasn't until they were all sitting, the doors all closed and eyes all staring straight ahead, breaths evening out from their ridiculous adventure, that Namie realized she was missing something important.

“Fuck!” Shinra and Izaya both flinched in the car when Namie suddenly yelled, face suddenly twisted and brown eyes narrowed. He slapped her steering wheel, hands clenched. “Fuck me!!!”

“Namie?” Izaya whispered from the back seat, sending her an odd look. He didn't move, but his face expressed concern for once.

“My keys! They're in my jacket!” She suddenly hissed, eyes glaring towards the massive building. _They_ were not going back in there. _She_ was not going back in there.

“The... the jacket that was down on that chair?” Shinra asked, glancing her way with eyes darkening. He had considered grabbing her stuff at one point. “Maybe the spider can go get them?” He suggested with a baffled grin, pulling the little spider from his pocket. The creature had been useless thus far, perhaps now was its time to shine. The spider squeaked, legs clicking as it refused to let go of the lining inside Shinra's pocket. After a brief moment of struggle, he let the poor thing go, and it huddled back inside his pocket for safety. “Or not...”

Izaya groaned in the back seat before flopping over onto his side, hissing when he jostled his body too much. He curled up on the seat, eyes generally narrowed and mouth pulled into a frown, pulling Shinra's jacket underneath his head. Shinra let his head fall back into the seat, staring out the front window while Namie glared at her steering wheel like it had personally offended her. _I should have just stayed out here. Shit. Why did I do that?_ They had been through so much – she couldn't send one of them back in. Izaya would tease her forever, but at this point in time she didn't care; she didn't feel like dying because of something stupid like this.

“I'll go back in.” She snapped, popping her door open before anyone could argue, and before she could rethink her horrible plan and idea. She jumped out of her car, feet landing quietly in the grass, her determination unwavering. She didn't even turn for confirmation, simply set out across the yard, her mind going through all possibilities. How long would this take? Would Shinra even be okay bleeding in the car? And Izaya? He looked terrible.

“Namie, wait!” Izaya was trying to pop open the back door, but Shinra locked the doors before he could get out. Izaya sent him a dirty look, watching as Shinra popped his own door open. “You... Shinra, don't you dare leave me here!”

“Just wait for a minute, I will be right back.” Shinra scolded, getting out of the vehicle. He slammed the door closed, trying not to laugh at Izaya's look of absolute horror.

“Shinra!”

No, he couldn't just let Namie go in by herself. What was she thinking? Celty would kill him is she knew he didn't try to help. “Namie!” Shinra called, hurrying through the grass. Luckily Namie wasn't that far, her resolve to go back down there alone weakening with each step.

“Get back in the car!” She snapped, whirling on her heel. She was walking backwards, arms crossed and eyes fixed on Shinra with her usually nasty glare, the one that sent people scurrying after a single threat. “I will fix this.” She was already entering the yard by the front door, her knees shaking the closer her torn, bare feet carried her to the fence. She turned around, freezing where she stood a second before Shinra yelled at her in a panic to stop.

Across the yard, on her side of the fence stood a six and a half foot figure, the grass swaying just below his waist. Namie felt her stomach lurch, the idea of going back down into that horrible basement seeming like the worst spur of the moment idea she had ever come up with. Getting out of the _vehicle_ sounded like a horrible idea too. So what she had lost her keys to her car? They could walk. She suddenly felt on edge like they were about to be attacked again by this new monster – she had screwed up, and it would be the death of them all.

The figure was dressed in solid black armor, dragon-like scales running up and down his body, reflecting no light from the fading moonlight, a cape blowing gently in the wind just above the long swaying grass. He looked oddly majestic, tall, strong and potentially lethal, but beautiful, despite the fact that he was headless.

A Dullahan.

Namie gasped, eyes widening at the black smoke the rose from his neck, long black strands coiling and dispersing in the wind. He took a careful step forward, slowly wading through the long grass until he was just out of arm's reach. Namie didn't realize she had been leaning back and away from him, his presence sending a shake straight down to her knees. She knew the legend, she knew what they were capable of.

But he too, seemed to be missing his head.

He reached his hand out, Namie flinching back a few steps while Shinra was deathly quiet some feet away from her. A black coil of shadows suddenly sprung up in his hands, a ball forming in his outstretched palm before gently dispersing into the air. A leather jacket hung from his hands, slightly scuffed and a little dirty, but Namie recognized it as her own. She didn't move, frozen in a trance. _This is not Celty, he might kill us all..._

He lifted the jacket, holding it by the shoulders and taking a step forward, his actions seeming non-threatening and oddly familiar. Namie held out her arm for the coat, used to her brother and even – if he was sucking up to her for whatever reason – Izaya putting her coat on for her, like a gentleman in the loosest sense of the term. She didn't really consider the danger – if they were all going to die anyway, there was no point in fighting it – as she turned, letting the otherworldly creature slip the jacket over her arms and onto her shoulders, before he stepped back and bowed. She wrapped the jacket tightly around her, feeling in the pockets her phone, her keys and even the flashlight.

He bowed to Namie. But he also bowed to Shinra, his form much deeper.

Namie backed away, stiffly bowing back politely to the creature in case it became enraged at her rudeness. Only when she was beside Shinra did she turn away, grabbing Shinra's hand while doing so.

They rushed across the field, borderline running and never looking over their shoulders until the got back into the vehicle. Shinra got in the back with Izaya and Namie got back into the driver's seat – after giving Shinra shit for locking all the doors.

“Put your seat belts on.” She commanded, hands shaking as she locked all of the doors once again. It took her thirty seconds to locate her keys and turn the vehicle on, the engine roaring back to life. The headlights flicked on, illuminating the tall grass and emphasizing the shadow of a creature standing in the field. He was standing in the gate, a majestically ominous figure given the scenery.

He did not move. Simply watched.

Namie licked at her bottom lip before pulling out of her hiding spot. She pulled away from the trees – from the asylum, from hell – slowly, watching the Dullahan carefully through the window, and then in the mirror. When she turned to head back down the creepy road she had driven up to get here in the first place, the Dullahan bowed once again, Izaya catching sight of it and gasping.

“ _You knew!”_ He snapped, glaring over to Shinra and jabbing him in the shoulder. “We let that Dullahan out of that room!?”

Shinra snorted with an uncommitted shrug, watching out the window until the Dullahan was out of sight. As soon as they were pulling away from the chaos and the building, Shinra turned to Izaya. “So what did you break?” He asked, hand reaching out for the zipper of Izaya's jacket.

“Don't you mean, what did _you_ break? When you fell on me?” Izaya snapped back, suddenly gasping when Shinra hastily unzipped his jacket in one fluid, way too quick motion. He almost complained again before quick, precise fingers found his collar bone. He moaned instead, grabbing Shinra's hand and trying to push him away with his good arm.

“Looks like a broken clavicle.” Shinra said, grinning in mild amusement, “It's a good thing Namie came and saved our asses though, or that clavicle would be the least of your worries.”

Namie sent him a dirty look in the rear-view mirror, suggesting that Shinra should shut up. Shinra grinned, leaning forward between the seats. “Thank you, Namie. I will forever be in your debt!”

Namie snorted, but a smile slowly spread across her lips. She liked the sound of that. “That's good to hear. So, I assume then, there will be no problem getting you in on the revenge operation?” Her voice went cold, eyes glaring at the winding road of trees and shrubs ahead of them. It was early in the morning by now – men would be dying within the next few days.

Shinra laughed, sitting back in the seat. “You just bring him to me, and no one will recognize him ever again. I'm sure Izaya would have fun cutting off a finger or two. Or ten. And a tongue. Some toes, given all the emotions I got to see tonight.”

Namie snorted, the drive and the fact that they _just almost died_ not seeming so bad now that they were free. She just had to make it through this winding path, and then they would be safe. By even then, her shaking hands had steadied, the eerie Dullahan not as scary as she had initially thought him to be. She now found him _interesting._ “What was his name? Fuzen something?” She asked, eyeing Izaya in the rear-view mirror. He had pulled his phone out from the pocket of Shinra's lab coat, and appeared to either be making a phone call now that he had service again, or listening to a message. He was still lying down like a little kid, and she found herself smiling. “Fuzen Kumori.” Namie said, the voice tasting sour on her tongue. “We have a lot of questions for him, as well as for your father.” She said, shooting him a quick but dirty look. “His name was mentioned.”

“My dad? And Fuzen?” Shinra asked, before scoffing. “You should have understood this would all go wrong given his name. Who trusts a guy named Fuzen?”

Izaya lowered his phone, staring blankly at the screen. He dropped his hands to the seat, eyes sliding over to meet Namie's in the rear-view.

“So if we get him, what should we do? Torture the answers out of him? That Dullahan is free! What if it comes and whoo's away my Celty? Also that giant-giant monster, and the Goliath. There's something really weird here. And listen. Izaya? Next time you want me to come with you on some random fucking excursion for the night, please call Shizuo instead. I'm sure that would have been better bonding time for you and him, and no one would have almost _died._ ” Shinra was making dramatic gestures, almost smacking Izaya in the face. “I even broke my camcorder – Izaya, where does he live? This man has a lot to atone for.”  
  
“It doesn't matter,” the informant said, his tone of voice instantly catching Namie's attention. Her eyes flickered dangerously in the rear-view mirror. He closed his eyes once again. “Fuzen Kumori is dead.”


End file.
